Top Ten "You know you are an Integrator when..."

1 you recognize people by their operating system, hardware model and major application portfolio.

2 friendships are governed by a Service Level Agreements and/or Service Contracts following the WSDL standard.

3 you consider yourself bilingual because you speak English and XML.

4 asked what you do for a living, you invariably default to “making computers talk to each other” or avoid the question altogether.

5 you know that loose coupling is not synonymous with wife swapping.

6 no matter who you talk to, you see them as either producers or consumers.

7 you understand their are differences between City Transit and the Enterprise Service Bus.

8 when you take a phone message it is by default real-time, guaranteed and fault tolerant.

9 you struggle for hours to understand the semantic meaning of those ‘extra’ charges on your cellular phone bill.

10 metadata is not a dirty word.

SOA Training

I received a question from a client regarding what value training would be if some students were skilled in the relevant technologies, some were modereate and some were newbies. I thought my reply was worth a BLOG. Let me know.

Having a variety of student skill levels take the same training is a normal and expected situation amongst many adopters of SOA technology and middleware platforms in particular. The overall goal of the classes is not only to teach basic skills but build a common shared understanding of how the tools are being used, or could be used, to build a solution.

The experienced students bring thier past expereinces (success and failures) to the class and at the same time they can validate their approach and understanding. They may learn different things than the newbies but they do pick up new skills or reinforce their confidence that they are using the tools correctly. thier presence makes the less skilled more confident in the overall team's chances of success.

The newbies benefit the most in this situation since they learn from not only the instructor but also from the combined knowledge of the other students. Integration platform software is complex. You will be hard pressed to find someone who would not benefit from reviewing the basics through instructor lead training. If the 2-3 highly skilled students still want a challenge, they can be charged with learning how to teach the class the next time to the next set of newbies.

If an organization wants to adopt a more SOA approach, they would send Business Analysts and Project Managers to the training as well. They may not be expected to build solutions, after taking the training, but they should learn how to "speak the language" of the builders.

In conclusion, technical training will raise the overall competencies of all team members so they can be expected to deliver rock solid solutions using integration middleware platform software. Having skilled students sit through 7-10 days of what they may think is 'a waste of their time' is a small price to pay for long term success. I assure you, it will not be a waste of anyones time!

The SOA Ninja

Forrester EA Conference DAY 1 Highlights

Well, the whole day started ff with the introduction from Gene Leganza from Forrester introducing the theme - Innovation. It does make sense since the role of enterprise Architects is truly at the "intersection of business and technology". This is a direct quote from gene. He went on to summarize the finding of a recent survey regarding he most important IT concepts/issues: 1. Agility, 2. Technical Support with all the others getting equal but less billing after that. the first issue is directly related to SOA in that agility is the capability to change quickly and efficiently.

Mike Gilpin from Forrester was up next with a talk on innovation stating that 'innovation should be simplifying". I would go on to summarize the idea itself should be simplifying even if the actual implementation is difficult. This stuff is not simple!

Michael kept mentioning the impact the recession might have on businesses adopting innovation ideas. It seems odd that this was brought up at all? He was optimistic regarding the capabilities inherent in innovative technology to help organizations pull through the down times. Hardly screaming optimism but practical advice I suppose.

Rapid, iterative development was espoused as a new best practice but of course it is tempered by Forrester suggesting that only some projects be given the mandate of not adhering to actual deliverable dates imposed arbitrarily when we all know that most projects should never have to undergo some effort estimate based development like we are plumbers or brick layers. We are more like artists, apply the craft of technology.


Here is a list of Innovation Adoptions best practices you can take home....

Hire/promote innovators, not police
Recruiting templates should add innovation as a skill set
Bring business leaders into EA
Immerse technology people into the business
Ensure there is an executive vision and that it is shared
Architecture teams work with business
Institute innovations labs with technology experimentation
Establish mentoring programs
Rapid prototyping
Manage and mine your idea portfolios
Take 3 perspectives: STO Strategic, Tactical, Operational
Market your efforts

Hub was great as the keynote speaker. It makes me proud to work for progress and I really hope he doesn’t read this since that’s not why I mention it. Simply put, if your executives are aligned with your overall vision, it makes doing your job that much more fun. Hub emphasize three more best practices that sum up the approach espoused by Progress Software:

Connect interactions freely
Mediate policy actively
Control semantics precisely

One interesting note is that Forrester has introduced a Vendor agnostic tend tool, similar and yet complimentary to the Wave. It is called Tech Radar and it predicts trends in technologies areas trying to predict which trend or fad will make it or break it. Plotting each trend related to the adoption maturity curve.

Got to get come sleep. We took a few good friends to the gaslight district of San Diego and had a blast. That’s the perks of this job - the people are great! Did I tell you we are hiring. Perhaps not? Keep Progress in mind if you like cool technology and working with bright and enlightened technologists. A winning combination.

Stay tuned for DAY 2. I think we are going back across the border?

Forrester EA Conference San Diego Feb2008

Well, a new beginning for the SOA Ninja. It has been a little while since I last wrote a BLOG entry. In fact, it was Nashville at the Gartner Integration and EA conference. Since then, I have joined Progress Software and since they are platinum sponsors of this conference and it's so close to Tijuana, I thought it appropriate to attend. With that out of the way, I will start with some suggestions.

7Feb Track Suggestions:

9:30 Don't miss the keynote from my CTO Hub Vandervoort. He has a great e-book on Socially Oriented Architecture as well. SOA rebranded!

10:15 meet me in the Technology Showcase, checking out the Vendor booths.

11:00 TRACK B - The Critical Importance of Business Context to Architecture Initiatives, Kyle McNabb, Forrester Analyst.

1:15 CONSELLATION A - IDS Scheer - Enabling EA (I like their products. They have a good story regarding SAP configuration design).

1:55 TRACK C - The Architecture of Dynamic Business Applications, Randy Heffner, Forrester Analyst.

After that, you are on your own. I will check in later today and BLOG key findings from these presentations. Stay tuned. Here are a few random observations already:

- San Diego is a border town and the sound of the gates at the border clacking was odd, especially the long cement corridor posing as a border. No inspections, just walk and be observed. Easy as pie. Coming back is a bit of a challenge but not like Canadian Customs.

- If anyone asks, yes, it’s a real Rolex. At least that’s what they said when I bought it.

- SOA has reached general acceptance. The concepts are riddled throughout the agenda. Very cool! I hope it's not just a passing fad or at least lessons are learned along the way.

Later,
The SOA Ninja

IC Calgary Chapter Breakfast 20Feb:
http://calgary.icmembers.org/
Blackbelt SOA Training 3-7Mar:
http://www.progress.com/cgi-bin/educ.cgi/details.w?id=1056
IC Enterprise Architecture and Integration Summit 12-13May:
http://eaic.icmembers.org/
Progress Exchange 2008 Paris 8-11Jun:
http://www.progress.com/exchange/2008/

Nashville Gartner Spring Summit 2007 - First (and ONLY it seems) Thoughts

It should come as no surprise to anyone that I was thrilled to be able to attend what I believe is currently an influential gathering of IT thought leaders. I met some of them and exchanged wonderful stories (best practices) from leaders at GM, EarthLink, Lowes, IDS-Scheer, Progress, University of Illinois amongst many others. IMHO, It is this gathering of global thought leaders that makes this conference attractive.

Here are my observations from the event. I hope you find them useful.

Gartner AADI Summit 2007 11-13Jun2007
Application Architecture, Development and Integration

Gartner EA Summit 2007 13-15Jun2007
Enterprise Architecture

Nashville, Gaylord Opryland Resort.

Session 1 - 10Jun Pre Conference Session – AJAX Limits, RIA Tech Risks and User Experience Possibilities.

Broke down the categories for RIA into this taxonomy:

RIA
Browser
No-plugin
AJAX
Plugin
Flash/Adobe/Laslo
.NET Silverlight
Java
Outside Browser
Short
Java
Webstart
Digital Harbour
.NET
Tall
Flash/Apollo
Java
Eclipse
IBM
.NET


The levels of AJAX adoption are:
Level 1 – snippets like validate postal code
Level 2 – widgets like a popup calendar
Level 3 – Client side framework
Level 4 – Client and Server side framework

The most benefit from AJAX is when it is used to automate simple data entry applications and pre-defined multi-step processes. This accounts for 80% of the applications that are required. Other technologies may be considered for the more complex needs (the other 20%), if this would provide value to the business and adequate support funding is in place to warrant the investment.

The concept of ensuring solutions go through usability processes and are vetted against what was called a User Interaction Patterns set of best practices. The things that should be considered when holistically designing the user interactions with the technology.


Session 2 – Complex Event Processing

This session disappointed me somewhat since it started the mantra of separating the idea of event driven architecture for the realm of SOA. In fact, that was the main theme of the keynote address. In any case, complex event processing is way cool and right on the mark regarding the need for abstraction. This abstraction is represented in CEP (Complex Event Processing) through 3 maturity levels:

Event Processing – publish and subscribe (MOM, WS, ESB, E-mail, RSS)
Basic Event Mediation – Transform, route
Complex Event Processing – Filter, Aggregate, Correlate

I consider this a great way of explaining basic abstraction concepts that didn’t really need a new term (CEP I mean). But if this wakes people up to the need to build this kind of abstraction into simple tool interfaces, I am all for it.

Here the definition of what is SOA, that pissed me off. It must match these criteria:

Engineered modular services
Modules/services can be distributed
Modules/services have formal interfaces
Module/services are reused/shared

Notable quotes:

“How many centres of excellence do you need?”
“Make EDA part of your SOA strategy”

“To be a Ninja, one must be a wizard. This means that he can "stop the world" and "see
with the eyes of God."
Ashida Kim, Secrets of the Ninja, DOJO Press 2000

Session 3 – Keynote – Challenges of Irresistible SOA

I gathered quite a number of nuggets of information from the keynote. Here they are in point form.

- SOA and EDA have been split and a new discipline emerged, known as CEP.
- Salesforce.com was quoted as a great example of an emerging trend SAAS (Software As A Service).
- WOA is defined as Web Oriented Architecture (REST/POX + WWW and web services)
- Emerging technologies are RSS, BLOG, AJAX and WIKI
- Multi-step integration challenges are being forefront on the minds of technology leaders.

Integration patterns were discussed, with a prediction on the types of integration being solved at organization around the world now (2007) and in 2012. These are the predictions:

Point to Point 2007 – 60% 2012 – 30%
Hub and Spoke 2007 – 30% 2012 – 45%
Distributed 2007 – 10% 2012 – 25%

Great speaker Ben Lheureux

Same analysis was done for the BPM activity. By the way, I don’t agree with these numbers in particular. The use of BPM models to only model process and not monitor and even allow the runtime environment to be changes, given a model drag and drop operation is a key fundamental belief I hold regarding the vision for SOA. It must happen sooner or the simplicity we need to deal with the increasingly complex automated technology will not provide the business value we anticipate. Anyway – stop ranting. Here are the numbers.

Model Process 2007 – 30% 2012 – 60%
Monitor Process 2007 – 20% 2012 – 40%
Execute 2007 – 10% 2012 – 20%
Orchestrate (I added this level since Gartner missed it !!!)

Data Integration numbers were provided as well:

Batch 2007 – 80% 2012 – 50%
Near real Time 2007 – 15% 2012 – 40%
MDM 2007 – 5% 2012 – 10%

Notable quotes:

“Just Enough Process” – seems this is the mantra of Gartner this conference. Just enough modeling, just enough as-is evaluation, just enough whatever and then get on with solving the business problems. Show results!

“Governance is a weasel word”
“Six Sigma is TQM in sheep’s clothing”

“The Ninja do what must be done, then it is forgotten. Princes and kings may gain some
temporary advantage through Force. But, the only lasting accomplishments are achieved
through Love.”
Ashida Kim, Secrets of the Ninja, DOJO Press 2000

Get IT done.
More conference proceeding to follow. It’s time for me to head to the airport.
Stay tuned – I attended an Oracle presentation by Dave Chappell – very cool!
The SOA Integration Ninja

5 minute video explaining web 2.0 Fantastic

Hi..
Here is a link to a YouTube video that explains the concepts behind web 2.0 very nicely.
Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

Extending Legacy Systems

Recently, I was interviewed by a freelance journalist from ComputerWorld. Just in case I only get a one line quote, here are the questions and my written answers.
Enjoy!
Murray
The SOA Integration Ninja

1. What is new in the area of keeping legacy systems going?

Adapters for legacy technology are routinely being used as wrappers for legacy functionality, promoting the reuse of this functionality within new and different business processes. While adapters have been available for legacy systems for many years, it has only been recently that standards for these adapters have been ratified. The WS-I (Web Services Interoperability) specification and the Web Services SOAP standards have been embraced by the software industry. Software vendors are just now releasing adapters, based on WS-I and SOAP, that allow legacy systems to ‘play nice in the integration and SOA sandbox’.

2. With web front ends, is there any reason to retire legacy systems rather than just giving them a new UI?

Most legacy systems were built to perform a specific set of functionality in a controlled and governed environment. When this functionality is exposed as services through a new web front end, the additional burden this puts on the underlying infrastructure and increased traffic may necessitate replacement of the legacy system rather than give it a new UI. Web front ends are often just lipstick on a pig. But you don’t shoot the pig that keeps winning you blue ribbons at the fair and you don’t retire your legacy applications when they continue to add value.

3. Is the retirement of IT workers leading companies to update their systems because they can no longer easily find personnel?

Not only is the retirement of workers causing IT shops to update their systems but also the rapid pace of change that has been embraced by the business. Users of corporate systems have come to expect the jazz of rich user interfaces and the experiences promised and delivered through web 2.0 technologies such as BLOGs and RSS. The ‘green screen’ is dead and is not tolerated for long amongst even the most inexperienced User that has spent more than a few hours browsing the internet, including Google, MySpace and YouTube. Business users have come to expect that their corporate applications can change at the pace of business. This pace is furious.

4. How should one decide whether to retire an old system or keep it running?

There is no magic or advanced formulae that should be used make the legacy retirement decision. A simple cost-benefit analysis weighing the pros and cons is still the preferred method of decision making. These decisions are almost always based less on the technical merits of the legacy system and more on the non-tangible aspects such as the projected lack of qualified technical resources for support and maintenance, vendor relationships and increasing total cost of ownership.

5. What are some mistakes people make when extending legacy systems?

When extending legacy system functionality, people often turn to the experts who wrote the system in the first place. These individuals are then asked to write code in a language unfamiliar to the majority of the remaining IT shop. While this seems the most cost effective approach at first, it is this fatal mistake that continues to tie companies to the legacy systems and the business processes it is able to support. The new paradigm is to leave the existing legacy functionality as-is and extend through standards based service interfaces. These services are then made available to orchestrate within agile workflow modeling software. The extensions are written in the latest technologies such as J2EE and .NET, with rich user interfaces and hopefully, breathe new life into the legacy systems value proposition.

6. What are some best practices they should follow?

A set of best practices, known as SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) has recently been adopted by the IT industry. SOA is based on the realization that change is ever present, moves at internet speeds, and that systems should be built in anticipation of having to change. The SOA vision of business and IT agility is realized through the introduction of a services layer that is based on industry ratified standards. These standards cover event-driven architectures, JMS, Web Services(SOAP), XML, BPEL, and industry standards schemas. Organizations should look to expose their legacy systems functionality as services using these standards.