Reviews for Enterprise SOA: Service Oriented Architecture Best Practices (Coad)

1. A good book on SOA, who would have thought

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2008

   I've read a few books, including several by Erl, and this book is by far the best. What I liked:
   
   1) Covered a range of technologies, emphasizing that SOA is not just about throwing out a range of Web services.
   2) Covered valid design/architecture choices, for example discussing asynchronous and synchronous approaches and where they might each be useful.
   3) Discussed how services can be a valuable tool in bringing IT/business closer together.
   4) The case studies were very interesting, I actually would have liked it if the book had more detail but what it did include was useful.
   5) The coverage of governance had me nodding my head, even if you don't chose to apply SOA you'll need to know how ensure that people don't fall back into tactical decision making.
   6) Covered how SOA can change your approach to project management.
   
   Having said that one issue I had with the book was the emphasis on having basic services as the cornerstone of your SOA (basic services being essentially entity services). I'm hoping that in a future edition the authors will explore how SOA can be used in a manner that work hand in hand with DDD and I think this would mean re-evaluating whether reusable entity services are really a good idea.
   
   However I have no problems recommending this book, its a great read.