ERS - Empty Registry Syndrome

I've met a number of organizations recently that seem to have a bad case of ERS, or Empty Registry Syndrome. This disease must be taken seriously. It is known to be fatal to service oriented initiatives.

Common causes of ERS include:
- Not having a 'shared services group'
- Not monitoring the project pipeline and identifying service early
- Silo-Oriented requirements gathering
- Buying a bad registry

Luckily, ERS is completely curable. By changing habits an organization can usually treat the disease in 3-9 months. It should be noted that the treatment can be painful and takes real commitment.

Common treatments:
- Give the development organizations goals related to service creation. The SOA initiatives MUST move beyond enterprise architecture and integration centers
- Revise the I.T. governance, funding and portfolio management processes to find services early
- Train business analysts and application designers to 'identify, analyze and design' services; people were not born with this skill
- Verify that your registry doesn't stink. Here's the test: If you search for a service that doesn't exist does it return with:
A) No results found
or
B) No results found, would you like to request a new service?

If the answer is "A" please call your vendor and let them know that their software is spreading a disease known as ERS.

Hattrick Software & Choreography

Steve Ross-Talbert has his fingers in a couple start-ups:
Hattrick Software focuses on Web Service Choreography:
http://www.hattricksoftware.com/

He blogs about some of his reasoning here: http://pi4tech.blogspot.com/

The original WS-CDL specification was less than impressive, however, the concepts were right on. I haven't gone back to revisit the specs but I will. It will take people some time to understand the fundamental 'centralization' problem associated with BPEL. Until then, alternatives will largely be ignored.

Lustratus Research on SOA

I just ran across this site which provieds SOA insight:
http://www.lustratusresearch.com/store/default.aspx

Service Analysis and Design

I've kicked off a new discussion group specific to SOA Analysis and Design. We're just getting things going but please stop by and sign up.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SAD4SOA/

The group will not be discussing architecture (mediation, ESB's, SOI, etc.) nor will it be discussing construction (Java, .Net, SCA, etc). The focus is purely on analysis and design. Hope to see you!