Service-Oriented Architecture Adoption In A Portuguese Company: A case Study

Organizations are constantly facing new challenges that require increasing response and adaptation capabilities. Seeking for agility and flexibility, companies have found in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) an alternative to integrate legacy systems with emerging technologies and put back the focus on the business by aligning processes and technology. In this article, we present a study about the adoption of SOA in the medium company of North Portugal, more specifically in a manufacturing company. This company is characterized by a number of difficulties for the adoption of SOA, like organizational, cultural and technological factors. However, the use of Business Process Management initiated by the implementation of the ISO 9001 (Quality of Service) it will facilitate in one hand the definition of processes and therefore the services of the future SOA architecture and in other hand, alert the company's administration for the potential adoption of SOA. We conclude that in spite of the difficulties encountered in the diagnostic phase and according to the business context of this company, the adoption of SOA can be a challenge for organizations but they have to ensure a set of structural and organizational. Key-Words: SOA, BPM, integration, services.