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Book Review: The Responsibility Virus Helps Fear Undermine Collaboration

Do "empowered" organizations outperform their command-and-control competitors? Business school dean Roger Martin saw this promising approach fail too frequently. His diagnosis: he calls it the Responsibility Virus, and offers tools to help those who would treat the Virus in their own workplace. Reviewer Deborah Hartmann found this book a good explanation of why process is not enough.

Deborah Hartmann Preuss
on Sep 10, 2007
SOA Governance - Long-Term SOA Implementation and Management

In this article, Wolfgang Keller explores the challenges in SOA adoption and discusses the commonalities and differences of SOA governance to overall IT governance. He discusses why SOA initiatives frequently get bogged down, and how the anchoring of SOA in an IT governance can help make SOA a success.

Wolfgang Keller
on Sep 10, 2007
An Introduction to Apache ODE

In this new InfoQ article, Paul Brown introduces Apache ODE, an open source implementation of the WS-BPEL 2.0 standard. ODE differs from other BPEL engines in that it is delivered as a component rather than a framework for developers looking to add orchestration functionality to their systems. Paul introduces ODE's features by showing how to deploy and execute a simple process.

Paul Brown
on Sep 03, 2007
Visualizing Agile Projects using Kanban Boards

In the spirit of "information radiators and “big visible charts” Kenji Hiranabe proposes using Kanban Boards to organize three viewpoints (Time, Task, and Team) so the whole team understands the current status of the project and can work in an autonomous, motivated and collaborative manner.

Kenji Hiranabe
on Aug 27, 2007
Service Composition

In this article, Boris Lublinsky discusses the main approaches to service composition, both from design and implementation point of view, and outlines the benefits of using orchestration. Topics covered include hierarchical vs. conversational composition, composition topologies, and the pros and cons of difference implementation approaches.

Boris Lublinsky
on Jul 26, 2007
Culture & Methods

Designing Collaborative Spaces for Productivity

The typical Agile team may work in a common "teamroom", but personal space is also needed. Teams find out fast enough that some of the creature comforts left behind in their former traditional spaces were there for good reasons. This article shares the collected wisdom of dozens of teams who created their own work spaces, as collected by several experienced Agile coaches.

Deborah Hartmann Preuss
on Jul 24, 2007
"Real Options" Underlie Agile Practices

Whether we realise it or not, "freedom to choose" is a principle underlying many Agile practices. By avoiding early commitments, we gain flexibility in the choices we make later. In this article, Chris Matts and Olav Maassen propose that an understanding of "Real Options" allows us to develop and refine new agile practices and take agile in directions it hasn't gone before.

Olav Maassen Chris Matts
on Jun 08, 2007
Case study: A new approach to integrating architectures post-merger at Lawson

The merger of Lawson and Intentia in 2006 left developers with an important problem to solve - the integration and presentation of legacy applications and business services that are constructed in Java, .NET, and other technologies. This case study looks under the hood at the new architecture at Lawson and how they got there.

Barry Livingston
on May 21, 2007
Implementation of business rules and business processes in SOA

Boris Lublinsky and Didier Le Tien discuss how business process engines and business rule engines differ, where their respective strengths are and when to use what in an SOA context. They discuss commonalities and differences between business rules and business processes and present some guidelines on positioning business rules in SOA implementation and appropriate usage of each technology.

Boris Lublinsky Didier Le Tien
on Mar 12, 2007
A Hard Look at the Organizational Implications of BPM

This article examines the conceptual BPM project from the following perspectives: what is involved to deliver the project, what are its enablers and what are its total costs of ownership (TCO). Before investments are made in reengineering processes and deploying BPM solutions, businesses need to commit to making the organizational changes necessary to allow realization of any lasting value.

Andrew S. Townley
on Jan 11, 2007
Interview: Using Agile for SOA

Recently, Digital Focus documented their experience using Agile to tackle SOA for Federal Home Loan Banks. The incremental approach included adopting an SOA platform that could grow as the SOA application portfolio grew, and getting frequent feedback from customers and developers. InfoQ interviewed both the client and the author of the experience report on the project, and business-IT alignment.

Deborah Hartmann Preuss
on Dec 04, 2006
Railway Story: SimpleTicket

A 5-year old, Dallas-based company named Spur is gaining attention and kudos within Ruby on Rails circles. Earlier this week it announced a new release of its popular GPL'd IT support tool named SimpleTicket. Managing Partner Alexander Muse was kind enough to share the story of SimpleTicket with InfoQ.

Obie Fernandez
on Nov 15, 2006