If you're having trouble writing the first paragraph of your business case for implementing service-oriented architecture (SOA) in your organization, maybe it's time to try a new approach.

"If the executive summary is hard to write, then the relationship of the proposal to the current situation or the benefits of the project may not be clear," writes Lewis Cardin, analyst for Forrester Research Inc., author of a guide to writing an IT business case. Starting with a clearly written executive summary, he covered the basics elements required in his report, "The Components of a Quality Business Case: Don't Let Your Business Cases Tell Only Part Of The Story."

While that report covers a general IT business case, in an interview with SearchWebServices.com, Cardin said there are specifics that need to be thought through before starting work on a business case for SOA. The first specific is to communicate what SOA means to the business, keeping in mind that at least some of the business case readers may know little if anything about SOA.