SOA Manifesto fails to inspire
Did you see the SOA Manifesto? It seems that software vendors and SOA luminaries feel the need to fire up some enthusiasm for SOA, so they are trying to replicate the success that the Agile Manifesto had in defining and focusing Agile development.
Unfortunately, the manifesto is a bit of a muddle, maybe reflecting different opinions among the authors. Half of the three principles are top-down, build-it-right, architecture-focused (”Strategic goals over project-specific benefits”, “Intrinsic interoperability over custom integration”, “Shared services over specific-purpose implementations”). Two are bottom-up, build-it-now (”Flexibility over optimization”, “Evolutionary refinement over pursuit of initial perfection”). And one is a platitude (”Business value over technical strategy”) - did anybody ever say they placed technical strategy over business value?
It is interesting to compare these six principles with the clarity and inspiration of the Agile Manifesto. Perhaps the difference stems from the fact that the authors of the SOA Manifesto are almost all vendor representatives and SOA authors, while the authors of the Agile Manifesto were mainly people working as consultants on real projects.
The SOA manifesto fails to inspire me…