Web Service Implementation Essay Example for Free

Web Service Implementation Essay Christiansen, S. (2002) once described ‘web services’ as â€Å"a potential political intrusion† (p. 15). When we think what does this sentence mean and when we add the fact that â€Å"web services are hot -by their nature- and not easy to make them workable in practice† like Siddhartha, P. (2002, p. 587) mentioned; then we could be able to imagine some of the potential hurdles that need to be overcome to successfully implement web services. Web services –by their nature- belongs to IT projects category. That’s why it is important to realize the reality of IT projects. A â€Å"41% of IT projects failed to deliver the expected value and more than ? of IT projects were canceled† (Needmuchwala, A. , [2008], p. 3) not to mention that â€Å"only 11% of organizations consider technology as a strategic weapon† (p. 3). Despite the fact that ‘web services’ do not require high costs to be implemented like other IT systems or solutions (ERP systems for example), the way to implement web services isn’t a bed of roses. And if we add those information –mentioned above- to the fact that â€Å"only 20% of companies gained significant experience with web services technologies† (Altova, 2008), the picture will be clearer that there are some implementation hurdles to be overcome such as the â€Å"technological, organizational and cultural obstacles that stand in the way of implementation† (Saugatuck, 2007, p. 3) First of all, ‘implementation’ is only a phase in managing IT solutions (web services in this case). And if the ‘strategic planning’ phase was successful and was done collaboratively by both top business management and IT department, taking into consideration all possible hurdles or challenges, the ‘implementation phase’ will be easier than with a weak plan. However, despite â€Å"the advances made in web services standards, achieving the seamless interoperability among heterogeneous platforms for the participating entities –which is required for successful implementation of web services- could be tricky† as Siddhartha, P. (2002) mentioned (p. 587) What softens the situation is the fact -mentioned by Aponovich, D. (2002)- that â€Å"none of these hurdles is insurmountable, each one of them could cause (1) potential delays to implementation or (2) adding barriers in the way to get maximum business value of web services (or return on a web services investment)†. Also, (Valentine, L, 2004) mentioned the fact that â€Å"lack of standards in such technology won’t be ‘a deal breaker’† –maybe- because the extra coding process required for this standardization won’t be too dramatic. The five hurdles mentioned by Aponovich, D. (2002) was (1) lack of experience in architecting web services, (2) difficulties in managing the organizational culture change, or â€Å"the ever-present hurdle, resistance to change† as Provost, D. (2004, p. 19) mentioned- (3) lack of standards, (4) lack of perceived business cases, and (5) difficulties in managing relationships with other organizations† There are numerous examples for companies (or sites) that overcome these hurdles and successfully implemented web services with a real business value or return on investments (ROI). Amazon (http://www. amazon. com/) and eBay (http://www. ebay. com/) are two examples for those sites. In Amazon’s case, â€Å"partners needed better data access but the process of collaboration was expensive and brittle† (Dumbill, E. , 2003) that’s why Amazon decided to provide web services. Certain issues were taken into consideration right from the planning phase that’s why Amazon succeeded in addressing these issues and finding the appropriate solutions. First of all, Amazon aligned the web services with their business strategy and â€Å"decided to pursued ‘revenue’ based on the successful relationship with Amazon’s associates and seller† (Dumbill, E. , 2003). Secondly, to guarantee success, â€Å"the license was important to sustain Amazon’s business model† (Dumbill, E. , 2003). The third issue was concerning protocols; Amazon â€Å"provided both SOAP and XML over HTTP (REST) and let developers decide between them† (Dumbill, E. , 2003). The fourth issue was â€Å"to create a software platform and they address this by borrowing best practices† (Dumbill, E. , 2003). The final issue was to â€Å"successfully provide support for developers by using a combination of some tools such as discussion board, weekly chat, regular newsletter, software development kit, and online FAQ† (Dumbill, E. , 2003). The most important is that Amazon â€Å"provided openness with developers to foster creativity and focused on effectiveness by ensuring data freshness and preventing excessive server load† (Dumbill, E. , 2003). Finally, it is obvious that the main factor, that leads to a successful implementation for web services, is the â€Å"the full participation and engagement of the business† (Jahnke, A. , 2004). Or in another word, to have melting the whole business into what Brynjolfsson, E. (2003) called ‘the digital organization’. And this ‘digital organization includes: â€Å"(1) automation of tasks, (2) skilled labor, (3) decentralization of decision making, (4) improving the information flow across the organization, (5) adopting performance-based incentives programs, (6) more emphasis on the effectiveness of training and recruiting, and having employee and customer satisfaction† References Altova. (2008). Altova Web Services Solutions. Retrieved October 30, 2008 from http://www. altova. com/solutions/web_services. html Aponovich, D. (2002). Five Barriers to Implementing Web Services. Jupitermedia Corporation. Retrieved October 30, 2008 from http://itmanagement. earthweb. com/erp/article. php/965371 Brynjolfsson, E. (2003). The IT Productivity GAP. MIT. Retrieved October 30, 2008 from http://digital. mit. edu/erik/Optimize/pr_roi. html Christiansen, S. (2002). The Business Case for XML Web Services. In XML 2002 Proceedings. IDEAlliance. Retrieved October 28, 2008 from http://www. idealliance. org/papers/xml02/dx_xml02/papers/04-02-01/04-02-01. pdf Dumbill, E. (2003). Making Web Services Work at Amazon. O’Reilly Media, Inc. Retrieved October 30, 2008 from http://www. xml. com/pub/a/2003/12/09/xml2003amazon. html Jahnke, A. (2004). Why is Business-IT alignment So Difficult?. CIO. Retrieved October 29, 2008 from http://www. cio. com/article/32322 Needmuchwala, A. A. [2008]. Evolving IT from ‘‘Running the Business’’ to ‘‘Changing the Business’’. TATA Consultancy Services. Retrieved October 29, 2008 from http://www. tcs. com/SiteCollectionDocuments/White%20Papers/DEWP_05. pdf Saugatuck (2007). SOA Governance: Necessary Protection for a Strategic Business Investment. IBM. Retrieved October 30, 2008 from http://www-935. ibm. com/services/us/cio/flexible/saugatuck_ibm_soa_governance_jun07. pdf Siddhartha, P. (2002). Web Services Interoperability: A practitioner’s experience. Springer Berlin. Retrieved October 29, 2008 from http://www. springerlink. com/content/q4w6ru7mbde4xfa7/ Valentine, L. (2004). CIO Focus on Internet, Web Services. CIO Today. Retrieved October 28, 2008 from http://ciotoday. newsfactor. com/story. xhtml? story_title=CIOs_Focus_on_Internet__Web_Servicesstory_id=23743