(Aloysius Abel)

Thanks God, the question WHY DO I HAVE TO LEARN SOA emerges at the very start of this course. Why? Because SOA is, for me, the most puzzling subject which have made me keep wondering where I am heading for. Reading the syllabus word per word many times doesn’t help me much. I think, the answer to this question will be very helpful for me to know what I am studying and what outcomes of study should I attain at the end of the course which in turn will guide me through the study skills I have to deploy during this term.

I would like to address the above title (question) by depicting three more interwoven and more detailed questions; What SOA is; What my current core business is; and Why I should learn SOA. The first question is fundamental because it will determine why I learn SOA. The second question is crucial and specific to different students in this class because it governs each person’s target benefit of study. As for why I have to learn SOA, I do realize that an independent programmer would have different answer from a user like me. What should remain the same, at least assumed the same, is about WHAT SOA IS.

1. What is SOA?

The definition itself is embodied in the name “Service Oriented Architecture” with the term service and architecture considered the key points.

1.1 Service

Service is defined in various contexts. Many people, including those outside IT undertakings, would perceive service in general environment, that is a vehicle by which a consumer’s need or want is satisfied according to a negotiated contract (implied or explicit) which includes Service Agreement, Function Offered and so on. However, throughout my reading efforts, I have come to the point of this course’s context that service is “a software component, that is, a business-complete logical unit of work, accessible programmatically from independently designed contexts via a direct and openly documented interface” as proposed by Gartner.

At the core of the services concept is abstraction that can be shared and reused in many different areas of the company. For example, there is a lot of software code that goes into creating an automated task such as sending a query to a school student academic report to find out if he or she passes. But if the school administrators or teachers can abstract all that code to a higher level—that is, take all the code that was written to perform the grade rating control and package it into a single unit called “pass with flying colors”—the programmers can reuse that chunk the next time the the teacher decides on another student that requires the same information rather than having to write the code again and again.

1.2 Service-oriented

When the word service is coupled with the word oriented (service-oriented) it then drives us towards a very common question raised by consumers: WHAT IS THE BUSINESS VALUE OF THE SERVICE. Consumers in this case are business practitioners like the CIOs, managers, staffs, and the like. From IT perspective, we call them users.

The business value will be more completely described in the next subsection when we have gripped the comprehensive meaning of service-oriented architecture. However, the business value of every organization is usually concerned with consumer’s expectations that the service should ensure:

• profitability
• alertness or agility
• cost reduction (increasing revenue significantly)
• integrating shattered and unpatterned standards and mechanisms etc.

1.2 Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Before I joined this class, I simply thought there was no other meaning of architecture than a blueprint (sketch, 2D, or 3D) of building to translate and demonstrate what the owner of the building wants. Now I realize that architecture is, in the world of IT strategy, the overarching strategy for building software applications inside a company. If the term service-oriented implies a software development methodology, then architecture is a picture of all the software assets of a company, a representation of all the pieces that together form a building. Therefore, service-oriented architecture is a strategy that proclaims the intention to build all the software assets in the company using the service-oriented programming methodology (CXO Media Inc., 2008)

2. My Core Business

I come from a non-profit corporate organization, but the last ten years we are applying more and more business principles because nowadays there is no reputation without money. My position is the Head of IT Department of an education foundation, Tarakanita, managing 60 school units in Java and Sumatra with seven branch offices (Jakarta, Tangerang, Yogyakarta, Central Java, East Java, Bengkulu, and South Sumatra). The business processes from school department levels, branch office levels, and the head office with more than 2000 people of the work force and 25.000 students is not as simple as long time ago. Tight competitions in the global perspectives have also “pushed” us to learn brand new management disciplines, finance, PR, civil technology, law, IT ect.

We have used a number of software with various brand names like SAS, SIMDIK, etc. I am the IT head with no academic background of IT, but my staffs are IT undergraduates whose roles are delivering help desk, purchasing thousands of computers and the peripherals, etc. Our ICT is education ITC encompassing its infrastructure, management information system, application for education, learning ICT ect. to its integration with the portal.

3. Why do I have to learn SOA?

I will never be a programmer nor an IT expert because I know that Information System Management is management; how to manage the corporate information system such way that our mission (i.e. students profile as the ultimate outcome) and the intended objectives (i.e. to multiply resources for the sake of sustainability of our education service) can well be achieved in the era of this global competition on education businesses.

Why I have to learn SOA is really contextual for me. The answers are tightly coupled with what SOA is and what my problems are.

Thank you.

Jakarta, March 27, 2009

I am glad that you’ve joined me.