Chapter 6 - Service-Oriented Architectures and Beliefs about Enterprise Architectures

Abstract

A service-oriented architecture can be part of wider enterprise architecture. This chapter explores the beliefs about enterprise architectures and the way a service-oriented architecture helps to resolve some issues related to those beliefs. Beliefs about enterprise architectures have often been the reason why many attempts at implementing such enterprise architectures have fallen short of expectations; the chapter reviews some of these common beliefs. The chapter shows the way in which aspects of a service-oriented architecture augment enterprise architecture methodologies and frameworks. An important point is the way, within an enterprise architectural framework, certain beliefs can trip up and the way a service-oriented architecture can mitigate the effect of those beliefs. The main advantage of using a service-oriented architecture as part of enterprise architecture is that it fits in with the general chaos of business. The ”form” of architecture must follow the ”function”, which is this general chaos of business.