Amidst all the SOA-related activity that is currently underway, there still remains a significant amount of

confusion as to what exactly constitutes a service-oriented architecture. Some qualify an SOA project by
the fact that Web services technologies are being used, while others classify SOA as a Web-centric
variation of object-oriented design.

by Thomas Erl What has become more clear than the actual meaning of SOA is the strategic
vision that has emerged around it. This vision is comprised of a set of goals and benefits that most
stakeholders fully expect to see realized when they support and commit to SOA initiatives. However,
because the "SOA" acronym has been used to brand products, technologies, and even projects without a
clear understanding of its meaning, many of these expectations have been and will continue to remain
unfulfilled. For example, the common (and dangerous) assumption that a solution is service-oriented
solely because it uses Web services has led to much disappointment.

There is, in fact, a wealth of information out there that communicates the meaning of SOA in detail. The
only problem is that this information is fragmented - distributed across marketing literature, technology
specifications, media reports, and independent research efforts. While there is no one recognized
definition of SOA, there is a baseline of concepts and principles that exists among all of the
organizations, platforms, and initiatives that have influenced and continue to shape the SOA movement.
For any IT professional, project team, or organization interested in moving ahead with SOA, this baseline
perspective is extremely important to understand because it reflects a current, industry-level, and
vendor-agnostic representation of what SOA is in the real world.

My third book in the Prentice Hall Service-Oriented Computing Series from Thomas Erl (entitled SOA:
Principles of Service Design) is dedicated to exploring the service-orientation design paradigm and
service design techniques. It begins with some introductory chapters that leverage years of on-going
industry research as part of my involvement in projects for SOA Systems Inc. This research has been
synthesized to establish the aforementioned baseline perspective of SOA, and to further broaden the
discussion to encompass the service-orientation design paradigm and service-oriented computing as a
whole.

The book manuscript (including the content on this site) was subjected to a rigorous technical review
involving over 60 reviewers from different vendors, organizations, and professions across North
America, Europe, and Asia. The book ended up being formally endorsed by members of major SOA
vendors, including IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, BEA, Sun, SAP, HP, and Intel.

With permission from Prentice Hall, I was able to publish some of the book’s introductory content on a
modest network of Web sites (in exchange for posting book cover images on Web page footers). The
primary reason these sites exist is to provide convenient on-line reference content for readers of the
book series. It also helps us avoid publishing redundant content in the books, so that each title remains
focused on its specialized subject matter.

WhatIsSOA.com essentially acts as the starting point for these sites by establishing some fundamental
terminology and providing specific coverage of the strategic goals and benefits that collectively
represent the modern-day vision of SOA and service-oriented computing. The last set of pages provide
further supplementary content that addresses implementation technologies, processes, and other
deliverables that are common in real world SOA projects.

Although this site positions SOA within the service-oriented computing platform, it only hints at what it
means for solution logic to be considered "service-oriented." That particular topic deserves a study of its
own, which is why I published www.SOAPrinciples.com, a separate Web site dedicated to an exploration
of service-orientation.

Note that this site and SOAPrinciples.com are further supplemented with two additional sites:
www.SOAMethodology.com provides a generic set of processes for service delivery, analysis, and
design, and www.SOAGlossary.com is a master glossary established in support of the series books.