The term service-oriented architecture gets thrown around a lot these days. We at SearchWebServices.com are as guilty of it as anyone, though to be fair it is what we cover. If we were SearchPizza.com we'd probably abuse words like sauce, crust and cheese.
Yet sometimes a term gets used so much that you can forget what it meant in the first place. Obviously there's the definition of SOA, which is always handy when you need some grounding, but say you want more. SOA has a set of principles, a new lifecycle, a different ROI proposition and it requires a new way of organizing your projects.
If you're going to marry your company to SOA shouldn't you take the time to really get to know it? While it can be argued that a shared love of blueberry pie and goofy YouTube videos are all it takes to form the basis of a meaningful human relationship, a deeper level of familiarity is probably in order.
With that in mind we've put together a quiz on SOA fundamentals as part of our SOA Lifecycle All-in-One Guide. The guide itself has been a rousing success with literally thousands of pageviews over its first two weeks of existence. It covers the pillars of the SOA lifecycle – design, assembly, deployment and management – with a wealth of resources including best practices columns, how-to tips and case studies.
The quiz deals with the fundamentals section of the guide. What should be defined in a service contract? When should you expect cost savings for an SOA project? How can open source software affect the way you build out and pay for your SOA? That's just some of what's in there.
Take some time to bone up on the basics, put some perspective on the projects you've been working on and the ones you're planning. Then go get yourself some blueberry pie.
