MOA - Magazine Oriented Architecture

Andy Blumenthal vents some healthy steam in SOA - Does the Emperor Have Clothes?

He's spot on with his reminder that the focus should be on alignment and relevance, not on SOA.

Once again I ponder the topic of SOA. Once again I ponder the underlying issues.

Then it hit me.

Before I go any farther, let me state for record - I believe SOA has an important place in modern IT. Having said this, it has become corrupted in/by the ecosystem.

I submit a modest proposal for resolving the current state of SOA affairs.

The proposal has two parts.

First, we should reclassify SOA as a pattern. This should help put it into a healthier context, virtually erasing the current list of issues surrounding the topic. There is little glory in selling a pattern.

I am not anti-ecosystem. In fact, I think they play an important role. To ensure the ecosystem is allowed to prosper, I propose a second part - an alternative to SOA.

Magazine Oriented Architecture (MOA)

In broad terms, it is an architectural style designed to align IT with vendors, consultants, and methodology mavens.

In anticipation of the inevitable detractors, here is a brief list of its key benefits.

• It provides a balanced solution for all invested parties.
• It abstracts several existing behaviors into one tidy architectural style.
• It is predisposed for wide scale adoption by IT
• It seems relatively impervious to ecosystem corruption
  

This is by no means an exhaustive list. I leave it as an exercise for the MOA ecosystem to elaborate as they see fit. I serve only to light the spark.

P.S. I almost forgot... I dare not take credit for the term Magazine Oriented Architecture. I'm merely reusing it. The honor of nomenclator seems to belong to James McGovern (What kind of enterprise architect are you?). I'm sure this is no surprise. :-)