Moving to mobile/cloud requires project management

A few years ago (perhaps less than ten), the term "SOA" appeared in the tech scene. "Service Oriented Architecture" was discussed, examined, and eventually dropped from the world of tech. (Or at least the Serious Peoples' world of tech.) People derided it with clever sayings like "SOA is DOA".

SOA defined software as a set of services, and a system as a collection of connected services. It was a reasonable approach to system design, but very different from the designs for desktop and web applications. For desktop PC applications it was overkill and for web applications it was nice but not necessary.

The change to SOA design entailed a large effort, one that was not easily justified. The rejection of SOA is quite understandable: there is no payback, no return on investment.

Until we get to mobile/cloud systems.

Mobile/cloud apps, in contrast to desktop and web apps, require SOA. The small UI app on a cell phone or tablet presents the data it receives from services running on servers. There is no other way to build mobile apps. From Twitter to Facebook, from Yahoo Mail to Yelp, mobile apps are designed with SOA.

Building new apps for mobile/cloud with SOA designs was easy to justify. A new app has no legacy code, no existing design, no political turf that people or groups try to protect.

Converting existing applications is much harder. The change from non-SOA to SOA design is significant, and requires a lot of thought. Moreover, it can often require a reorganization of responsibilities, changing the political landscape. Which groups are providing which services? Who is negotiating and measuring the service level agreements (SLAs)? Who is coordinating the consolidation of redundant services?

These reorganizations, if not anticipated, can increase the management effort for the simplest of conversion projects. (Even anticipated reorganizations can increase the management effort.)

Changing the organization is not a technology problem. Moving from non-SOA (desktop PC apps) to SOA (mobile/cloud apps) is in part a technology problem and in part a management problem. You need to address both sides for a successful project.