SOA != Web services

A lot of folks think a service oriented architecture is “Web services on steroids.”

In order for business to free itself from technology, the business logic must be separated from the plumbing, Web services technology is what allows us to make this separation, creating business service components from business applications. The business logic sits above
the plumbing in the business services layer. These business service components bring to the business the same efficiencies of reuse, ease of change, and consistency of results as Web services do on the programming level.

The creation of a SOA involves identifying the key business services and working top-down, versus bottom-up. Making key business services into black boxes means that business can reorganize itself as needed. Once you have several key business services, you string business services together to create a business process. In an insurance company, “claims handling” is a business process. In a hospital, “admitting a patient” is a business process.

Note that a business process is not by definition automated. It may indeed require manual participation or intervention. Great gains in efficiency come when a process is automated “from end to end,” but this is not always possible.