As larger organizations begin to embark on their service-oriented architecture (SOA) projects, there is some misdirecting going on that you should be aware of, which will allow you to make an educated decision as to, not only what you're going to do, but who's going to help you. At issue is the fact that many people in the planning stages for SOA do not get the proper advice and guidance as to how to proceed, or even what a SOA actually is. Thus, the larger tragedy is that many of these projects will hit the wall, and do so with an impact that will reflect poorly on the notion of SOA, when it's not really a SOA issue at all.

First, be wary if consulting organizations point out their experience in the world of SOA by putting up past projects as proof of their experience. Most, if not all, of these past projects are really JBOWS (just a bunch of Web services) and have no underlying mechanisms to provide agility, which is a core benefit of SOA. The fact is that most end users out there don't know the difference. Always keep in mind that service-enabling existing systems is useless without a mechanism for turning those services into solutions.