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Why I hate SOA in less than 200 words.

Started by jhannes · 3 months ago

On JavaZone 2005, I talked about “Why I hate SOA”. I found it hard then, and I’ve still found it hard for a while to express this sentiment concisely. I think I’ve finally got it!
One of the most common inefficiencies I discover in organization ... Continue reading »

2 comments

  • Interesting article -- okay, I'll bite. First let me say that I agree, up-front analysis is always partly wrong. Responsibilities and interfaces will eventually change. Anyone who's ever created an API or shared component lives in that world.

    But, assuming a component has callers outside of a single application, how can you avoid defining a contractual interface? If components didn't have responsbilities and defined interfaces, developers calling those components would have to understand the internals of every single one of them. In a large system, that's just not realistic.

    Sure it can be taken to an extreme, but what's your alternative?
  • Good question, Scott.

    If you are going to be used by an external application, sooner or later you will have to publish a contractual interface. However, I find that most developers break up their systems into too many applications with external interfaces before this is necessary. As long as you have a well-defined group, it's no problem to have 20 or more people using continuous integration to stay agile for a long time.

    I guess my point is that: Yes, if you need to communicate with an external application, you need a contractual interface. But my experience is people overestimate the need to communicate with the rest of the world. (This is of course an observation from in-house development, I expect shrink wrap to follow different rules)

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