Do You Believe SOA Related Projects Will Increase or Decrease in the Future?

The answer is a resounding "YES". SOA has been around in one form or another well before the acronym SOA was coined. The goal of well-meaning architects has always been to align business and IT, increase business agility, and establish IT value/credibility with robust user-oriented solutions. SOA is the latest name given to that admirable, always slightly out-of-reach goal. The same goal will be called something else later but the principles of SOA will stand. The architecture pattern embodied in SOA has stood and will continue to stand the test of time.

A related question though was anwered previously on the ebizQ SOA forum related to the Biggest SOA inhibitors. So, while I am confident that the number of SOA projects will increase in the future, the rate at which that will occur depends on how well these inhibitors will be overcome.

Another question that comes to mind relates to the never ending debate between "Quantity" and "Quality". While numbers are important, they don't tell the whole story. Are we better off if the number of SOA projects goes up while the success rate (aka quality) does not or gets worse? Yes, thinking about quantity is important, especially as one embarks on new initiatives and wants to ensure that they will not fall behind the times even before their initiative is over but remember that any discussion about quantity must be balanced with a corresponding discussion on quality.

So, I end this post with the question:

Do You Believe that the Quality of SOA Related Projects Will Increase or Decrease in the Future?

* Originally posted on ebizQ's SOA Forum on May 31, 2009