Marriott's 'If-It-Ain't-Broke-Don't-Fix-It' Approach to SOA

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February 13, 2007

Marriott's 'If-It-Ain't-Broke-Don't-Fix-It' Approach to SOA

John Whitridge, vice president of enterprise architecture for Marriott International, sums up the company's SOA philosophy this way: "First, do no harm."

Marriott's approach to SOA is, by design, slow and cautious. Whitridge, who recently gave a talk at the OpenGroup conference in San Diego, was quoted in SearchWebServices as declaring SOA to be a long and winding road. "For us," he said, "SOA is not something we're going to get to overnight." Whitridge said any successful operations will remain in place, and SOA will not be used to upset the apple cart.

Marriott hopes to achieve "increased agility" with services-based applications that can be assembled quickly to respond to changes in the hotel market. The SOA is also intended to provide easier paths to integration with partners, such as Web sites that provide online hotel bookings. The reuse of services would save development costs and get new value out of existing systems, Whitridge believes.

Marriott's SOA approach is heavily focused on the business, not technology, Whitridge also said. Marriott maintains two "watchdog organizations" that bring technology and businesspeople together: an architecture review board, and an SOA services governance board. As a result, the program has more C-level and business manager buy-in.

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