ZapThink is predicting that there won't be enough SOA architects around in 2007.  Here's an exerpt:

2007 Prediction #2: Enterprise Architect Drought

One dire prediction for 2007 is that there simply won’t be enough qualified and SOA experienced enterprise architects (EA) around. Sure, there might be many “paper architects” – that is, those that claim EA and/or SOA skills on their resumes or in their career history, but much of that experience will be attendance at a few vendor-heavy SOA courses, the development of Web Services-centric interfaces, and a sore lack of any methodology, modeling, Service lifecycle, or governance experience to speak of. Yes, it might just be that the biggest force gating widespread adoption of SOA is not the technical complexity of SOA projects (one can actually say that the technology part is relatively trivial), but rather the organizational, architectural, and skill gap that most companies have in making this architectural change a reality.

ZapThink has seen first-hand evidence of this lack of EA skills. First, there is a significant demand in the marketplace for experienced SOA talent. Second, we are seeing a burgeoning of SOA consulting companies that offer kick-start approaches to SOA in which they supply the experienced architects and their customers supply the heavy-lift labor to implement the Services. Already we’re starting to see a bifurcation in the IT community between architect and developer, with development seen as an increasing commodity whereas architecture is an increasing scarcity.

I have to agree.  We're seeing the same thing with our clients.  There just aren't very many people that have the skills needed for enterprise architecture – let alone SOA architecture.  This could become a huge problem for the industry soon.

On the other hand, Moongate Technologies will be glad to help out with SOA training and consulting services.  Give us a call!

Way back when we were just getting Moongate Technologies off the ground, we had a meeting one day and discussed using SOA as the foundation for all of our new company's operations.  We knew that SOA wasn't just an IT function and could be applied across the board to all of our functions as a company.  So as an exercise in SOA thinking, we had everyone consider the types of services they could offer and needed to get their job done.

As it turned out, it was more interesting to think about than implement in a company that, at the time, had only 4 employees!  Nevertheless, it was a good exercise and one that can be extremely useful in the right context.  For example, I just read this blog entry by JP Morgenthal citing an interesting example:

If you think about McDonalds with drive-up windows, you realize there is a major impediment to quality management. The speaker systems are hard to hear over the surounding noise. If you combine that with workers that don't natively speak your language, you end up with a good chance that the order will be wrong. If you're McDonalds and you're worried about slipping profits and losing customers at the drive-thru windows, you're certainly going to look for a solution to this problem.

The solution is pure SOA and the only technology involved is purely telecommunications. To improve quality of order fulfillment at the drive-thru window, the news report stated, McDonalds was going to connect the drive-thru window ordering system with a call center comprised of native-speaking individuals. Wow! Do you get it? McDonalds does! They turned order taking into a service. A service that, if they choose to in the future, they can outsource with no impact to the processes that are in place.

Fantastic insight!  And this is exactly the type of understanding we were gaining in our early company exercise.  The key to SOA is understanding that a process is made up of services and that the implementer of a service is not the same as a service.  And  that this whole concept is completely independant of technology and applies to any process.

Start thinking in SOA and enjoy the new vistas of opportunity that await!