Archives for May 2009

At the March SOA Consortium meeting, Cory Casanave, CEO, Model Driven Solutions & ModelDriven.org, gave an overview presentation & demo on Enterprise SOA Modeling with the new OMG SoaML UML profile. (pdf)

SoaML is a UML profile and metamodel for the design of services within a service-oriented architecture.  SoaML can be used for architecture level modeling, or as part of a model driven architecture (MDA) process, starting with a business model and transitioning through logical and physical models, resulting in technology implementation. Since it is a UML profile, it is immediately compatible with existing UML tools.

Casanave began by setting context, describing the rationale and objectives of SoaML,  how SoaML views a service (agreement between parties to exchange something),  the  top-down (business-driven) and bottoms-up (legacy-aware) usage paths, and the mapping of those paths to model driven architecture (MDA).

To bring the specification to life, Casanave walked through the artifacts related to a claims processing scenario, including the services architecture model (see below), business process model, service contract, participant interaction model, message types, service interface, service usage, participant model, composite application structure and information model. 

[Click on Picture to Enlarge]

Included in the example was the iteration of model detail as the process moved from business concept to logical model to systems model.  In a follow-on demonstration, Casanave highlighted the transition from physical model to technology implementation using ModelPro, a new open source tool.

Even if you don’t have the time to listen to the podcast of Cory’s talk, I highly recommend flipping through the slide deck to see SoaML in the context of a real business example.  All of the artifact slides are nicely annotated like the one above.

To listen to the audio recording of the presentation portion of Casanave’s session and/or view the rest of the slides go here.  To view the entire SoaML specification, please go here. (200 page pdf)

 

[Disclosure: The SOA Consortium is a client of my company, Elemental Links.]

Did you hear SOA died again last week?  Does this make SOA more dead?   Finally dead?  Or, on par with Jason from Friday the 13th, deadish, but always lurking for a sequel?  Bad analogies aside, this time Anne is much more deliberate in separating “SOA” the marketing term, from s-o-a the practice:

"SOA" as a term has lost its luster, but "SOA" as a practice is essential for all organizations going forward” 

So, you could say I was right in my “cheeseburgers are dead, but demand for burgers with cheese is at an all time high” quip from January. 

This all brings me back to something I was talking and tweeting about last fall, that “it’s time S-O-A stood for services, outcomes and assemblies”.  As I shared with Dave Linthicum, I picked 2009 as the year organizations shift their SOA perspective from infrastructure to solutions.  And, that we’d start to hear more frequently from organizations that were early with this business-driven mindset.

This (finally) brings me to the point of this post… If you have a story to tell, now is the time.  The SOA Consortium and CIO magazine are once again partnering on a SOA case study contest.  Entries are open until June 26, 2009.  For more information on the contest, I’m excerpting my post from SOA Consortium Insights:

“Do you have a SOA Success Story?  Can you tie your SOA initiative to quantifiable business value and/or IT efficiency?  Have you learned lessons that others should know?  Did you find a way to persevere despite a tough economic climate and industry noise on SOA’s health?  Would you like an opportunity to share your story?  Garner industry-wide praise for your well-deserving team?  Then, look no further…

The SOA Consortium and CIO Magazine are proud to announce the 2009 edition of our Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Case Study Competition. The competition is open to organizations of all sizes, including government agencies, which have successfully delivered business or mission value using a SOA approach.

Similar to the inaugural contest in 2008, the goal of the SOA Case Study Competition is to highlight business success stories and lessons learned to provide proof points and insights for other organizations considering or pursuing SOA adoption. To qualify for the competition, the SOA project must be complete with demonstrated business results.

Entries will be judged on the complexity of the business problem addressed, the ROI/Business Value achieved (Agility/Innovation/Flexibility/Optimization/Resilience), the level and sophistication of the cross-organizational collaboration (Business/Technical), the usage of SOA approaches and supporting technology and lessons learned. In addition to one overall winner, organizations will be recognized by industry/government.

To learn more about the contest and start your application, please visit the case study contest center on the SOA Consortium Site.

To read about last year’s winners go here.  And, for insights into the 2008 judging criteria, go here. 

To help us spread the word on real-world SOA success, please tell your colleagues and SOA community friends about our contest with CIO Magazine.

Fine print: Entries are open now through June 26, 2009.  Only entries from team members are valid.  [Translation: We will screen out vendor submitted marketing case studies.]”

 

[Disclosure: The SOA Consortium is a client of my company, Elemental Links.]