SOA - An Architecture Which Creates a Flexible Link between Business Processes and IT

To be viable, a company must be adapted continously to the market’s requirements. The adaption of a company to the market’s requirements means also changes in the business processes of the firm. Till several years ago, in any enterprise there was a strong link between business processes and IT applications. Any changes in the business processes lead to a change in the IT applications. This means that any change in the business side involves time, human resources and material resources consumption.This fact can be translated in a slow adapting to the market changes and a cost increasing for changing IT applications side necessary for their adaptation to new business market. Today the market changes quickly and it has a great development; this means that the enterprise adaptation to the market’s requirements must be done quickly and with low consumption of either human or material resources. Also, the market changes which cause changes in the business processes should not cause major changes in the IT area. This goal can be achieved using an architecture services-based (SOA) for the enterprise. This architecture allows us, like in a puzzle game, to use the same pieces of material ("services") to build different models ("business processes").