DLF Fall Forum - SOA for Libraries (Richard Akerman, CISTI)

This, for me, was one of the most interesting sessions at the forum. Also the one that might have most pertinence to the NLA's current work.

Richard first described enterprise architecture (EA) as vision translated into operational success (borrowed from an earlier presentation). This leads to the questions: who are we and what do we do as an organisation? The following points need to be addressed:

• Business framework
• IT Architecture framework
• Framework for implementation
• projects
• metrics
• buy-in
• processes
• people
• Implementation

The following needs must be addressed to achieve success:

• Tightly linking the architecture to the business.
• Use an approach that is disciplined and traceable back to the business.
• Develop an action plan to support implementation.
• Architecture outputs are integrated with each other and with other IT outputs (base analysis and design on te architecture).

SOA services, in the context of an EA, should be: autonomous; loosely-coupled; coarse-grained; have well-defined interfaces; and, allow reuse through composition.

CISTI has a five-person dedicated architecture group consisting of a senior manager/chief architects and four other architects. They have developed a litmus test to evaluate business functions in terms of SOA characteristics. They have an architect from the group involved in every project team to ensure the project achieves its goals within the EA and SOA environment.

I thought it would be great to have something like this at the NLA. I wonder if this is something we could consider along the lines of the Innovation division, particularly as this is really a problem for the organisation to solve; not specifically IT?