Checklist for a flexible SOA-based integration strategy:

DM Review, May, 2008

1. Stay loose - loosely coupled, asynchronous, message-based architecture.

2. Choose an agile integration middleware platform - powerful visual design interface, support for process flows as SOA services, reusable open source metadata layer, a single code base, wide connectivity to legacy as well as modern distributed and SaaS applications.

3. Tackle one piece at a time - incremental adoption gives rapid ROI; line-of-business needs should drive focus of particular processes to be implemented, not technology.

4. Expose integration process flows as services to further insulate business processes from the changing IT environment and scale the granularity.

5. Expect change - build robust error checking and notification into the maps and process...