Robert J. Williams Jr.

In today's economy, an enterprise must have strong financial motives for transitioning to SOA. SOA's superior technical capabilities are a strong motive for information technology professionals to make that transition. However, enterprise stakeholders are motivated by solid investment opportunities. Software architects have learned how to express the technical virtues of SOA. What they need to learn next is how to express the investment virtues of SOA. Software architects can learn a lot from how building architects formulate their business cases. Building architects have learned how to establish the value of their construction proposals in terms of numbers. They know how to accurately estimate the outcomes of their building projects and, to an acceptable degree, deliv... (more)

More SOA Transition Bang for Your IT Bucks

This article explains how an Open Source SOA Roadmap can use a typical Web application project's funding as the basis for a successful SOA transition effort. It is the first of three articles that explains how open source technologies and techniques can be leveraged to successfully deliver SOA solutions given the current economic downturn. The pain of these economic times is real. Staying... (more)

Transition a C-Level SOA Skeptic into a SOA Backer

SOA C-level skeptics come in all shapes and sizes. They can be in any industry or any government agency. They can be close friends who "really like you" and no matter what, will invite you to their backyard barbeques. However, despite their differences or that fact that they may be you friends - C-level executives must have confidence the enterprise architect can deliver on what he propo... (more)