SOA migration: from anti-patterns to thinkLets

Authors

Abstract

Service-oriented architectures (SOA) are becoming increasingly important. Consequently, companies are seeking ways to migrate
their legacy into this new form of information systems organization. This process is a group task, involving not only IT staff but
also managers and end-users. For this task, several anti-patterns ' documented and undesirable situations ' have already been
identified and cataloged, so that new teams that take on the migration task can avoid previous mistakes. We describe how a well-
known group decision tool ' the thinkLet ' can be used to facilitate detecting and avoiding the occurrence of SOA migration anti-
patterns during a process of this nature. By selecting as an example one of the various anti-patterns, we illustrate how several
thinkLets can be used to help identify it and then trigger another set of thinkLets aimed at solving it in a collaboration
environment. This approach draws on the strengths of thinkLets to codify expert collaboration knowledge in a manner
transferable to practitioners for use in work teams, thus enhancing the success of SOA migration projects.

Subject

Information Systems Design

Conference

Group Decision and Negotiation Meeting, June 2008