Kyle Gabhart

An ancient Chinese proverb says, "Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand." For many people, even entire organizations, the approach to education seems to be along the lines of learning facts, figures, details, tools and standards. This results in a shallow understanding of both the business problem and the new Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) strategies available for addressing the business's needs. The next step is either to scrap the initiative or pour more time and money into patching the solution to bridge the chasm that could have been avoided with a more complete understanding of the domain and the implications and strategies surrounding service orientation. In this article, we'll unpack the challenges facing organizations tha... (more)

Is a Picture Still Worth 1000 Words if You Don't Understand the Language?

Modeling business processes offers an effective way of capturing end-to-end requirements for a solution.  It also clearly communicates the business scenario and corresponding solution in a way that can be understood by both business and technology professionals.  This communication does hinge upon consistency in modeling, output format, and even the approach that is ... ... (more)

Ten Steps to Successful Cloud Adoption

A Journey of False Starts This is not the first time you’ve had your heart set on revolutionizing your information systems: One year, you rolled out a big Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) initiative, but it was too brittle and carried high maintenance costs. For a while you experimented with Web Services, but found that while they were easy to work with, they were largely insuffi... (more)

Owning Hardware is Soooooo 2008

As the fallout from the economy takes its toll: staff layoffs, reduced capital expenditures, dwindling revenue, etc., enterprises of all sizes are looking for opportunities to trim back on their fixed costs and move toward business models that are more agile, scaling up AND down with demand.  Call it Cloud Computing, call it Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), call it service orientatio... (more)

SOA Governance: Start Small and Build Incrementally

If governance were a house, you would be left with the options of either building it from the ground-up or attempting to haul a complete house in on a large truck. While the latter is possible, it is fraught with difficulty. The house does not lend itself well to transport. It may become damaged during the move. It may not fit on your lot or connect smoothly to your utilities, requiring ... (more)