One of the toughest jobs for managers today is keeping up with the rapid changes in technology. The advent of Web Services and service-oriented architectures makes this more important, because these technologies are going to fundamentally change the way we build our internal systems the information systems that support our organizations and how our internal systems interact with external systems. There has been nothing like this before in the software industry. We are on the cusp of building plug-compatible software components that will reduce the costs of our software systems at the same time increasing the capabilities of the systems. Sure, you have heard that promise more than once before. And more than once, the delivery fell short of the promise. But, as with such promises, they will come true some day. That time is now.

This is a guide for the savvy manager who wants to capitalize on the wave of change that will occur with Web Services and service-oriented architectures. The changes wrought by this technology will require both a grasp of the technology and a way to deal with how these changes will affect the people who build our systems in our organizations. This book covers both issues. Managers at all levels of all organizations must be aware of the changes that are on the horizon and ways to deal with both sets of issues.

This is a nontechnical book on a technical subject. It assumes no prior knowledge of the technology. It is written with a high-level view...