SOA isn’t just trendy, it’s here and it’s working. Most large enterprises have already launched some sort of SOA initiative, the objective being an agile architecture that can respond to business needs in near-real time. Along the way, SOA provides a means for fixing systems that have languished in a dysfunctional state for years. No wonder IDC expects spending on SOA-related software to reach nearly $15 billion by 2009.

With an SOA in place, organizations can leverage existing systems in a dynamic environment, abstracting the essence of applications into services that can be reassembled quickly into new solutions. But how do you get there from here? An SOA has so many moving parts, it’s often difficult to step back and isolate the guiding principles that can keep an initiative heading toward success.