SOA Whitepaper - Multichannel SOA and BRMS

White Paper
Multichannel SOA and
Business Rule
Management
Systems (BRMS):
Agile Approach to Building
and Maintaining Business
ApplicationsMultichannel SOA and
Business Rule
Management
Systems (BRMS):
Agile Approach to Building
and Maintaining Business
Applications
White Paper
© ILOG, an IBM company - May 2009 - Do not duplicate without permission.ILOG, CPLEX and their respective logotypes are registered trademarks.All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.The material presented in this document is summary in nature, subject to change,not contractual and intended for general information only and does not constitute a representation.
Table of Contents
1.0 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................... 4
2.0 THE PROBLEM ........................................................................................... 5
2.1 SOA Infancy .......................................................................................................................5
2.2 SOA Gaps ..........................................................................................................................7
3.0 THE SOLUTION......................................................................................... 10
3.1 Independent Life Cycle for Business Logic ......................................................................10
3.2 Better Reuse ....................................................................................................................11
3.3 Maturing SOA with BRMS and BPM ................................................................................12
3.4 Unanticipated Advantages ...............................................................................................13
4.0 SUMMARY................................................................................................. 14
Page 3
Abstract This paper presents service-oriented architecture (SOA) through the eyes of people with different roles within an organization. It will show their needs, challenges and tasks as they relate to SOA. Their stories differ in dimension; however, when taken together, they explain many of the pressure points that drive businesses to SOA, and in our case, buttress the case for a more agile approach to building and maintaining multichannel business applications. We will first begin by describing the business context and the problem. From there, we will introduce the people and their perspectives. Finally, we will unveil the solution and explore its impact across the organization. 1.0 Introduction In most organizations, the practice of creating and maintaining an SOA is an unfolding story with an eye to the horizon. At any moment, the critical requirement or need could arrive that will force the implementation to the next level of complexity and maturity. Regardless of where one's architecture fits along a continuum of maturity, benefits may be realized: improved modularity, greater reuse, and separation of a myriad of life cycles. It may also herald a new period where business and IT collaborate in ways that are unexpected and result in unanticipated benefits. The road to SOA is not without its challenges. Organizing around SOA seems to be as problematic as establishing the reference architecture, which makes SOA as much a sociological challenge as a technical one. Teams may be bifurcated for specializations between services, and new roles, such as enterprise architect, may emerge that require cross-organization analysis of data, service levels and public offerings for partners and clients alike. Mature organizations are likely to feel more like a start-up as the effort unfolds. However, the upheavals of an SOA initiative are well known today, as are the rewards, such as new levels of agility and responsiveness to meet the needs of the market. This paper will present SOA from the perspectives of different people within an organization. It will demonstrate their needs, challenges and tasks as they relate to SOA. Each story differs from the others in dimension, but as a group, they show what pressures drive businesses to SOA, and for us, furthers the case for ... [download for more]