Thursday, August 14, 2008

The SOMA Method

The latest version of SOMA - the service oriented modeling and architecture method from IBM has been released. An article on the same -> http://www.research .ibm.com/ journal/sj/473/arsanjani.html

Who wants to know more ... just drop me a line!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't see any implications difference between after SOMA & before SOMA. Other than few defined standards SOA is nothing but a piece of same old crap. Old wine in a new Bottle.
Show me one example where SOA Architect do differently than a non-SOA Architect

Anonymous said...

I'm interested in learning more in detail...could you provide some pointers to the related reference materials?

Are there any real-world use cases documented?

Thanks,
shuang

Tilak said...

A SOA architect's primary focus is to identify business aligned services, that are coarse grained enough for the business to find relevance and significance in, and thereby fund for implementation.

The granularity of a service is a challenging proposition. What may be considered as an operation on a service by a given enterprise may well be a service in its own rights for another enterprise. For example, 'transfer funds' may initially start off as a simple service operation where a dollar amount may be transferred from a checking to a savings account. This may be an operation on an existing service called TellerService.
However, the same operation may take on a much complex implementation in cases where a bank does internationa money transfer, that even requires the intervention on an external clearing house. In such situations, based on the complexity and granularity of the functionality, it may be a service in its own rights.
Exposing such business capabilities as business aligned IT services is the crux of SOA.

SOA is not radically different from traditional IT. However, it brings in the much needed business to IT alignment and makes it a reality through methods, techniques, tooling and technology.

It helps an enterprise a very clear idea on where to focus and channelize ones investment in IT.

Tilak said...

This is for Mary.
SOMA here is a IT term used in a specific context in designing software systems.
It is rather different from the Soma pill that you mentioned :-)

Conservative Dan said...

Hi Tilak

I am tring to do some research on SOMA and SOA modeling methodologies. Is there anyway for an IBM partner to download the SOMA method, or do you have to buy a hardcopy?

and yes we sell the data power XML appliances.

Tilak said...

The SOMA method, unfortunately, is not available for download. It is an IP that is owned by IBM Global Business Services and is only available to clients who are ready to use it and incorporate it into their enterprise.

My first book entitled 'Executing SOA - A Practical Guide for the Service Oriented Architect' has a chapter, chapter 4, dedicated to the elaboration of SOMA, as it was incorporated into the Rational Unified Process and was called RUP-SOA. The version of SOMA that forms the basis for RUP-SOA is what is illustrated in the chapter. That may be a good starting point for you. Hope this helps.

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