Cooperation Between OPITZ CONSULTING and SOAPARK

OPITZ CONSULTING and SOAPARK strike an arrangement to cooperate in the area of IT strategy consulting. Core of the cooperation is the range of services offered for IT executives, particularly when it comes to topics such as IT Integration, Governance, SOA and BPM. The first outcome of this cooperation is the workshop “Integration Scenarios in Modern Application Landscapes” for IT professionals. The workshop can be booked through OPITZ CONSULTING.

JAX / Mainz: Model Governance

The best IT experts of Europe meet at the JAX conference. Renowned speakers share their knowledge and experiences on the topic of enterprise and web development with the conference attendees.

Dr. Dirk Krafzig delivers a practical report on the topic „Model Governance for SOA“. This is a key capability of large enterprises which requires companies to maintain their knowledge in formal models such as functional reference models in the first place. Secondly, it requires enterprises to define and execute governance processes. Finally, it requires the model to have valuable impact at so called Governance touch points.

Publication: Information Processing in Insurance Companies

Published in January 2010, this book considers the interaction between business and IT in the insurance industry, providing insights into the relevant topics of cooperation between the two fields.

The aim of the handbook is the provision of basic IT knowledge for actuaries.

Editors: Michael Aschenbrenner, Ralph Dicke, Bertel Karnarski, Franz Schweiggert.

Dr. Krafzig is one of the authors.

Publication date: January 2010, Springer, ISBN: 978-3-642-04320-8

SOA Reference Model for Insurance Companies

On 4th December 2009, SOAPARK announced the development of a comprehensive functional SOA reference model aimed at insurance companies.

The new model will be developed in several stages and cover all fields of a direct insurer – including health, life and property insurances. The model covers the data, functions and business rules of the SOA service layer as well as comprehensive process descriptions.

DOAG 2009 / Nuremberg: UDDI Service Registry

At DOAG 2009, Oracle users could attend more than 340 practical presentations and keynote speeches by renowned specialists over three conference days. The conference provided the latest information on technology, application and strategy, in particular in the Oracle world.

Dirk Krafzig reported on the use of UDDI services registries for the establishment of a SOA in large enterprises.

SOACON / Munich: SOA Modelling

SOACON brought together many experts with experience in the modernization of processes and structures in enterprises. These were passed on to the conference delegates in practical workshops.

Dr. Dirk Krafzig delivered a practical report on the topic “SOA Modeling”. The session reported on an actual project, where the aim was the introduction of an ERP system into a complex application landscape. The integration followed the principles of service-oriented architecture, beginning with logic architecture and process analysis. One of the essential success factors of this project was the successful change in the mindset and attitude of the full-time staff.

2nd International SOA Symposium / Rotterdam: Service Repositories

Markus Mazur held a presentation at the 2nd International SOA Symposium in Rotterdam on the subject of service repositories. The aim of the talk was to highlight how imprecisely the term ‘service repository’ is still defined.

What exactly is a service repository? A forum? A blog? A database? A wiki? Many different people claim to know what a service repository is and how it is supposed to function.

The presentation slides show different definition ideas for service repositories as well as some of the functions that they should include.

SOA Manifesto

17 leading experts of the SOA community from around the world have published the SOA Manifesto.

The aim of the manifesto and its authors is, based on the experience of the past few years, to present the goals of SOA and to formulate the fundamental values and principles into understandable and discussible statements.

The creation of the manifesto took place during a three-day workshop. During this time, the individual authors presented their suggestions on value systems and principles. In the following process, the suggestions were gradually consolidated.

Further information on the SOA Manifesto can be found here: http://www.soa-manifesto.org/

2nd International SOA Symposium / Rotterdam: Governance Touch Points

The largest SOA event of the year is targeted at SOA practitioners. Renowned SOA experts and authors from around the world will hold keynote speeches, presentations, demonstrations, panels, and SOA training and certification workshops – all with a focus on the realization of SOA in the ‘real world’.

Dr. Dirk Krafzig will hold two presentations at this English-language conference:

“SOA Rollout Strategies”: Different governance rollout strategies in the framework of a SOA introduction will be shown and the criteria to determine which strategy is suitable for which type of enterprise presented. The differences, with regard to size, culture, organisational discipline and management style, play a particularly important role in light of the selection of the correct rollout strategy. Practical examples show how SOA programs can be accelerated or delayed through the way that the governance is realized.

“SOA Governance Touch Points“: In this presentation, an overview of typical IT processes is provided, showing for example the gathering of the requirements, project proposals, test runs for integration as well as the EA planning, and their potential points of contact with SOA governance. The presentation acknowledges the fact that no SOA initiative can address all these points of contact and control them through strict governance at the same time. It is therefore vital that the points of contact that are the most important in a SOA program are identified and prioritized with regard to risk minimisation or ROI. The presentation is based on the corresponding chapter in the soon-to-be-published book on SOA governance by Thomas Erl.

SEACON Conference / Hamburg: Service Ownership – Social and Political Challenges

The conference organized by SIGS DATACOM on the current topic of software development offers Open Space, quick presentations and expert interviews alongside the normal presentations by renowned experts. Key topics of the conference are productivity, domain engineering, sales and communication.

Dr. Dirk Krafzig will hold the presentation “SOA Service Ownership – Social and Political Challenges”. Reusable SOA services are not only realised through good design. The adoption of service owners is probably one of the most important organisational changes on the path to a SOA-capable organisation. Service owners are enterprisers in enterprises. They devise, create, sell, finance, look after and explain their services. Through their work they shake the firmlyestablished power structure of many IT departments. The resulting social and political challenges need to be mastered on the path to a successful SOA.

VfL wins Bundesliga

Congratulations! VfL Wolfsburg wins the Bundesliga for their first time in history.

BITKOM SOA-Forum / Frankfurt: SOA as a Balance of Governance and Project Processes

BITKOM SOA-Forum 2009 – Which trend in the BPM and SOA arena brings real value? The BITKOM SOA-Forum 2009 will answer this question. Dr. Dirk Krafzig (SOAPARK) and Dr. Christoph Bröcker (Zühlke) present the talk „SOA as a balance of governance and project processes“. By presenting case studies they show where governance has to interfere in the project process in order to achieve a well-structured and agile IT landscape.

JAX / Mainz: Service Ownership

At this year’s JAX conference, Dr. Dirk Krafzig holds a presentation on “Service Ownership – SOA Governance Best Practices” on the SOA Governance Day. Many IT architects have had the experience that large organizations have the tendency to produce “IT silos” in the long run. Melvin Conway formulated this observation in 1968 already in his eponymous law. It became clear that reusable SOA services are not only realised through good design. This presentation describes an important element for a service-orientated organization: service ownership. Service owners are enterprisers in enterprises. They devise, create, sell, finance, look after and explain their services.

First International SOA Symposium / Amsterdam: Conway’s Law

The “First Annual International SOA Symposium” with the slogan “substance only” was aimed at SOA users at all levels. A nine-person planning committee, comprised of established SOA professionals, ensured that every session delved deeply into the corresponding topics and provided real benefits for SOA practitioners with regard to the most important SOA topics.

Dr. Dirk Krafzig held two presentations:

“Conway’s Law and SOA Governance” – Conway’s Law says that large organisations almost inevitably realize designs that correspond to their own communication structures. In this presentation, the theoretical basis will be explained and case studies will be presented that show which effects Conway’s Law has on large IT users and which measures can be taken.

“SOA Dependency Management” – Large enterprises need improved SOA program management. The most important question in connection with SOA appears to be: how can enterprises manage the complexity of SOA? This presentation highlights several case studies from the fields of telecommunications, aviation and insurance.

OMG Information Days: Enterprise SOA – Planning and Management

SIGS DATACOM presented the 9th OMG Information Days 2008, a one-day conference of the Object Management Group (OMG). The focus this year was the topic of “Enterprise SOA – Planning and Management”. Dr. Dirk Krafzig and Dirk Slama formed the advisory committee for the event, where progress reports, tools and best practices for the successful introduction of SOA at enterprise level were communicated.

In their practice-oriented contribution “Enterprise SOA – Planning and Management”, it was shown that the fields of functional architecture, IT processes, IT organisations, IT/business alignment and Change Management must be considered alongside the technical aspects when introducing a SOA. Through the use of practical examples, pragmatic and comprehensive planning and management strategies were presented.

OOP / Munich: Enterprise SOA Meets EAM – Illuminating Enterprise IT from Two Sides

At OOP 2008, presented by SIGS DATACOM, Dr. Dirk Krafzig and Ralph Nelius gave/give the presentation “Enterprise SOA meets EAM – Illuminating Enterprise IT from Two Sides”.

Enterprise SOA is a comprehensive framework for the modernization of IT at the enterprise level, which has since its genesis assimilated numerous established disciplines and adapted them for its purposes. At the same time, the protagonists of established practices of enterprise IT have taken the ideas of SOA for themselves. One of the currently most fertile grounds is the field between Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) and Enterprise SOA, which will be illuminated in this presentation in a very entertaining way.

OMG SOA Information Days / Dusseldorf: Organisational SOA Governance

At the OMG Information Days 2007, Dr. Dirk Krafzig held one of the keynote speeches on the subject of “Organisational SOA Governance”. The aims of enterprise SOA as well as the expected advantages for large organisations are relatively well understood and widely accepted, today. The question of enterprise levels is frequently asked after the concrete introduction of a SOA. How do the long-term transition plans look, and how can they be implemented? The topic of SOA too frequently addresses primarily the technical and architectural levels. This presentation brings the organisational side of the long-term implementation of a SOA to the fore. The use of concrete examples shows how the setup and the governance of a ‘SOA organisation’ works.

Nikkei BP Conference / Tokyo

The SOA Forum 2006 of Nikkei Business Publications Inc. took place at the end of October 2006 and was a great success. With more than 500 participants from around the world, the conference was completely sold out – more than 300 registrations could not be accepted. Dr. Dirk Krafzig provided information on the basics of SOA in a keynote speech. His remarks met with particular interest among Japanese system integrators.

SOA Days / Bonn: Implementing Business Processes and their Functional Infrastructure

The SOA Days 2005 Technology Conference of Deutsche Post AG took place under the slogan “Powering SOA – Technologies for Service-Oriented Architectures”. Dr. Dirk Krafzig held a presentation on the subject “SOA and BPM – Implementing Business Processes and their Functional Infrastructure”.

Deloitte Seminar / London

This full-day seminar on the subject of SOA was led by Dr. Dirk Krafzig and Dirk Slama. The seminar provided a comprehensive overview of what was at this point a new subject area, and supported the theoretical knowledge with case studies. Beginning with the conceptual principles of service-oriented architecture, the seminar traced an arc through to organisational questioning and technical platforms. In addition, the long-term changes in the markets for standard software and implementation services were intensively discussed.