It's hard to think about service-oriented architecture without thinking of
services; after all, services are the main focus of SOA (it's even in the
name). If service-oriented architecture is an approach where the business and
technical architecture is oriented around services, then what exactly is a
service? Unfortunately, the answer to this question varies greatly depending
on whom you talk to and how you're using SOA in your organization. This
variation tends to create quite a bit of confusion when trying to design and
implement a SOA-based solution.
There are several excellent service-oriented methodologies available today,
most of which describe processes for identifying, defining, specifying,
implementing, and governing services. While these methodologies provide t... (more)