"Enabling the Mission" A Practical Guide to Federal Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Abstract

The world is changing at an accelerating rate and the federal government needs to keep pace. Broad-based change is always difficult, but the federal government is plagued by a variety of inhibitors to change, including enterprise verses mission organizational orientation; bureaucratic culture; program aligned funding processes; budgetary cycles and processes that do not facilitate agility or reuse; and a very large and diverse embedded technology base. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) promises to help agencies rapidly reconfigure their business and more easily position IT resources to serve it. Improved business agility – through the sharing and reuse of infrastructure, services, information, and solutions - is a key component of any Federal Enterprise Architecture whose need will become increasingly critical in the future.