Business Process Management: The Real Driver of SOA

by Clive Finkelstein

A major problem facing enterprises today is enterprise integration, which includes business integration and technology integration. While methods are needed to achieve business integration, the technologies themselves lead to technology integration. My recent Executive Report, " Business Integration for Rapid Business and IT Change" (Vol. 6, No. 11), addresses the former focus. Earlier Cutter reports address part of the latter focus; for example, " Web Services: The Promise for the Future" (Business-IT Strategies Executive Report, Vol. 5, No. 4) authored by me and " Getting Ready for a Service-Oriented Enterprise Architecture" (Enterprise Architecture Executive Report, Vol. 5, No. 8) by Douglas Barry. Business process management (BPM) is an approach that uses service-oriented architecture (SOA) as a bridge between business integration and technology integration. This Executive Report addresses emerging changes in BPM and SOA.