I had heard about something called twitter from a few people recently and was reading a posting yesterday so I had to check this thing out.  Twitter is a kewl little service/site, that allows people to drop little twitter notes on their life so friends can keep track of them, in between blog entries where the kewl things in life occurr. I was able to locate and follow several friends, based on my gmail contact lists, that were already members.  So if you want to see what really goes on in the life of the SOA Chief, check me out at SOA Chief on twitter

I was listening to a videocast from a well known and respected industry analyst just yesterday and something mentioned in the cast reinvigorated some ideas that I have mentioned several times in the past.

Several questions mentioned in the cast were of the nature like “Do you have a SOA?” and “How many SOAs do you have?” These sort of comments, questions are the norm for many of organizations due to many people thinking that SOA is something that you can buy or build. These two notions could not be any further from the truth. But, as I have stated many times before, SOA is an approach taken, a mindset adopted, while building systems. Organizations can build service ecosystems and systems that expose/rely on service-oriented principles.

Current funding models, attitudes, incentives, SDLC processes, and most everything in an organization are in total opposition to SOA adoption. This is why SOA is so disruptive to organizations.

SOA is not an overnight change but rather a lengthy journey. I have stated this several times in the past and have even created a section of a training class around planning for the journey. This journey can not be completed in months, as some believe, but rather will consume many years.

SOA imposes significant cultural changes. SOA is more about culture and social changes rather than technology. The technology is just enabling the SOA principles and is not SOA itself.

My advice would be to be cautious of those who make such statements and be careful not to ask these sorts of questions. One final thought, if you were to ask someone from the Netherlands if the had a SOA you would receive some concerned looks and responses. You see SOA in Holland stands for Sexual Oriented Afflictions, sexual oriented diseases.