Service oriented architecture vs. Enterprise architecture: Competition or synergy?

Abstract

Currently, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is still in its infancy, with no common agreement on its definition or the types and meaning of the artefacts involved in its creation and maintenance. Despite this situation, SOA is sometimes promoted as a parallel initiative, a competitor and perhaps even a successor of Enterprise Architecture (EA). In this paper, several typical SOA artefacts are mapped onto a reference framework commonly used in EA. The results show that the EA framework can express and structure SOA artefacts with minimal or no customisation and can help reason about and establish unambiguous meanings for SOA artefacts across the business. Further on, it is shown how an EA-specific approach can help scope the areas of the business that require attention as a result of the changes brought about by an SOA vision and design principles. This suggests that integrating the SOA effort into the ongoing EA initiative is a best practice that will greatly benefit all business units of the host organisation.