InfoQ Interview: Using Agile for SOA Implementation

Posted by Deborah Hartmann Preuss on Dec 04, 2006

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Process & Practices,

Architecture & Design,

Enterprise Architecture

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SOA ,

Agile Techniques ,

Stories & Case Studies ,

Agile

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Conferences ,

Digital Focus ,

Business Architecture ,

Interviews ,

Business/IT Alignment

This autumn, Digital Focus documented their experience using Agile to tackle SOA for Federal Home Loan Banks. The incremental approach included adopting an SOA platform that could grow as the SOA application portfolio grew, and getting frequent feedback from customers and developers.  InfoQ interviewed both the the author of the Digital Focus experience report, and the project's client.

Current SOA processes and guidance generally encourage a phase-based approach to SOA implementation, fully understanding the problem and defining the solution before implementation begins.  Digital Focus, an east-coast firm specializing in Agile software development and integration, is convinced that Agile development practices are equally suited to implementing SOA.  In August, Digital Focus published an experience report, "SOA, Meet Agile. Adopting SOA with Agile Teams" describing how SOA was successfully deployed using agile methods at Federal Home Loan Banks' Office of Finance (FHLB-OF).

In the following article, InfoQ editor Deborah Hartmann interviewed two people close to the project, to understand how it came about and how it worked out.  First, Geoff Henton, CIO of FHLB-OF answered some general questions about using Agile practices on this SOA development effort, an approach they had formerly used only on software projects.  Then Tom Stiehm, co-author of the report, filled us in on how the project unfolded.

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   Very Interesting!

   by Brian Di Croce

   Our client wanted an approach that could be applied to any project they have for the next ten years so the practices in the approach are solid software engineering practices that any IT shop could follow and get benefit from.

   
   I can't wait to read your next interview about the status of this approach...even though I'll have to wait until 2017 ;)
   
   Thanks to the people at Digital Focus for taking time to write the whitepaper/article about their approach; it's very much appreciated.
   
   Cheers,
   Brian

   Reply

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