Ended up catching the SOA track which was moderated and introduced by Ng Beng Lim from NCS. Oracle, Microsoft and BEA all had a failrly standard pitch with a heavy emphasis on governance (although slightly different ways of modelling the overall journey).


Jurgen Coppens (Accenture) did a refreshingly different approach with a focus on overall transformation (to be expected;) but in particular value realization. Presented some good models, like my sketch to the right, and also advocated a pragmatic approach of focusing on the quick wins in the early stage.

One impression I got from all the speakers however is that they all called for a rational architecture and governance process that is strongly tied to business strategy. In fact this is a fundamental assumption. I have this impression however that for many companies are not really ready to address the question of whether to adopt SOA or not, since they are still have not established the foundation architecture and governance competency. Baby steps.

Anyway that's a wrap for the conference. As I mentioned in my first post, this was the first that had caught my eye for some time, and it lived up to the promise.
ix2007