Attended a SOA event two weeks ago. What struck me was the fact that every SOA project seems to step into the same pitfalls, in spite of all elaborate publications and earlier warnings.

Lessons learned:

- There’s still a gap between business and IT. IT people don’t talk enough with business people or don’t understand business well.
- Insufficient participation of users.
- Testing isn’t part of the daily routine, testers aren’t involved from the beginning.
- Too little POC’ s are being carried out.
- Using processes as starting point takes much more time than taken into account at the beginning of a project.
- Too ambitious projects (“big bang” with very compelling results) whereas taking small steps in iterations better suits SOA implementations.
- Managers too often manage projects using waterfall methods (fixed planning, separate phases, big upfront design, and no multifunctional teams). As a result there is little or no flexibility and less possibility to change.
- Technical support departments are involved too late

The whole story of this event @: http://www.approach-alliance.nl/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=52 (ENG)
or
http://www.abc-thinkbig.com/weblog/#category1 (NL)

Looking forward to read more about your experiences/knowledge of SOA and necessesary cultural change!

Here are some points that should be considered upfront :

Requirement/Business Understanding pitfalls:

#1 Restricted Vision – Unable to identify the overall picture which leads to “Incorrect business mappings ”

#2 Fail to identify and analyses the High level “Integration Points” (both internal as well as external)

#3 “Big-Bang”Approach/Plan rather than “Step Wise ” progressive one.

#5 Fail to identify and evaluate the “infrastructural” – Non functional needs.

#6 Last But Not the Least – Unable to identify and place the “right people” for “right tasks” in “right time”.

mk