alfabet: Applying Enterprise Architecture Management to SOA
ZapThink’s perspective on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is that SOA is essentially a set of Enterprise Architecture (EA) best practices, linking the disciplines of SOA and EA together. As organizations make progress with their SOA initiatives, they generally come to agree with this perspective. As a consequence, one of the primary benefits of the “SOA as EA” perspective is the ability to leverage EA Management (EAM) tools for SOA initiatives.
Most EAM tools, however, do not have capabilities specific to SOA. planningIT from alfabet is an important exception. In addition to a full breadth of collaborative EA modules that cover the gamut of IT planning activities, planningIT also offers some specific capabilities that help with the planning of SOA initiatives as well, including tools for planning reusable Services that meet the needs of the business.