Action No. 3: Catalog Services to Enable Reuse

As an organization grows its services portfolio, it will need a formal mechanism for keeping track of its software assets. SOA adopters should maintain a catalog of services that developers can consult to learn what services exist, and avoid duplication. Those catalogs, sometimes termed registries, let developers look up reusable services. "You need a directory or a Yellow Pages so people can find these services," says Motorola's Redshaw. Developers who are able to locate a particular piece of functionality don't have to rebuild it, adds Jeffrey Adkins, integration architect with the Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation's Integration Competency Center in Columbus, whose bureau is in the process of establishing a registry. Motorola uses Mercury Interactive Corp.'s Systinet Registry, and vendors such as SOA Software Inc. and IBM Corp. also offer service registries, which allow to developers publish services, list them according to category, and discover them via a search mechanism.

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