SOA Adoption: Focus on the culture, not the product

Wondering if anybody out there read the recent Forrester Research report that takes a closer look at SOA adoption and success. Basically, the latest headlines around it are that only one percent of current SOA adopters have had a negative experience. That doesn't mean a somewhat larger percentage didn't struggle some before everything came together.

Joe McKendrick has a good take on the report over at his ZDNet blog and outlines the current state of the state with regard to SOA. As Forrester points out, SOA success requires organizational-level adoption. Hell it requires some leadership.

But I tend to think that organizational-level adoption isn't just about SOA. Adoption of any new technology - or any new way of doing something (as is the case with SOA) - comes down to the company culture.

I can't be the only one who believes that it's culture and not technology that holds back any big IT project. C'mon, it's not as if IT shops are lacking options when it comes to product choices. And they don't call it shelfware for nothing.

In order for any significant IT initiative to succeed it requires a shift in the company culture. This doesn't mean you have to hire a bunch of change management consultants and go through a big rigamarole just to get the IT staff to use a new technology. Clearly that isn't going to happen in this economy if it ever made sense to begin with. It simply means you need to build in a learning curve when you map out the timetable associated with the expected ROI. From there, you prioritize the use of the technology in terms of rewards, performance reviews, etc.

Of course a bigger initiative, like SOA, may require some brown bag educational lunches and shorter milestone rewards but it will lead to faster adoption. This, as you can guess, will accelerate returns on the investment. Bigger bang, bigger rewards.

I suspect that these points are probably familiar to anybody who's taken a Solutions Selling course or is trained in consultative sales. We've all heard the old adage that people buy from people, not companies. Yet people adopt new technologies based on value, relevance to their job and peer approval -- which is reinforced by culture in the end.

This is no easy feat as the cultural acceptance of a new technology can be more challenging than getting the contract signed after a lengthy nine-month sales cycle. However, it can also be the differentiator when it comes to real ROI and systemic IT advantage.


-Jeff