SOA as a Continual Improvement Initiative
Sometimes things happen that are seemingly unrelated but the timing and topics are alarmingly similar. I was speaking to a technologist about selling Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) approaches to companies. The struggle is that it is very much an IT sell and it should be a business sell. Using my strategy mapping mentality I related how I first find a couple of key strategies from executive discussions and then tie tactical technology enabling projects to them. This usually opens executive’s eyes to projects that are aligned, or not aligned, with strategies. But we came to no conclusions about how to sell what seemed to be pure technology to a business person.
Just before this discussion I was reading a seemingly unrelated article about a technology “framework” for enabling better decision making and continual improvement of business processes. After the discussion above I reread the article in Manufacturing Business Technology magazine and realized that the two (my discussion and the article) had a lot to do with each other. In the article, Chevron’s Mike Brooks “evangelizes” about a “framework” that helps companies make better decisions:
“Consider the situation in which a production operator sees a sensor pointing to an impending failure,” he explains. “The maintenance department will want to take that machine down immediately and repair it, but the operations department will want to keep it running to keep from delaying orders. But which is the right answer?”
Giving the current state of systems in most process plants, there is no way to know definitively, Brooks argues. “Under the current work processes, a decision is made in the daily production meeting, and usually the guy who shouts the loudest gets his way.”
With the right technology framework in place, Brooks contends, appropriate data from all departments could be shared at the meeting, and a collaborative process would yield an objective decision that is best for the entire business, not just a single department.
What Mike seems to be talking about is having a technology “framework” that allows easy access and manipulation of information through building of a new or changed/improved business process. This is not simply report writing but rather a business process with multiple steps and inputs and outputs. In this case the new process would allow better decision making. Companies that realize that continual improvement of business processes is important need a “framework” that allows fast implementation of new business processes no matter how small or large.
Could SOA provide this? Some SOA messages concentrate on cutting integration costs. Others enabling quick building, by users or technologists, of new business processes. Most say that you have to have a need for one or more new applications in a business area. What if a “framework” enabled a company’s continual improvement culture? In other words, what if the technology helped not only integrate but build new business processes fast enough, no matter how small, to support a continual improvement strategy designed to stay ahead of the competition?
How do you view SOA? from a business or technology perspective? What helps you understand the value of an SOA “framework” to a company? What strategies does such a solution fit with?
Don’t miss a post! Subscribe via RSS or EMAIL.
Did you like this post? See “Related Stories” and “tags” below.
(Image Source: stockxchng.com)
Tags: business, continual improvement, services oriented architecture, SOA, strategy, technologyRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Best of the Best Practices, Solutions and Trends Requiring Projects
0 opinions for SOA as a Continual Improvement Initiative
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: