The IBM SOA Foundation is an integrated open standards-based set of IBM software, best practices, and patterns. The key elements of the IBM SOA Foundation are the SOA life cycle (model, assemble, deploy, manage), reference architecture, and SOA scenarios. IBM's SOA Foundation lifecycle consists of the following iterative phases and some of the key activities performed:
Service Components Assembly based on business design
Service specification, realization, and implementation
Business process assembly and implementation leveraging new and existing services and components
End application connectivity including routing, message transformation, protocol transformation, and so on
Creating the monitoring model based on KPIs
Deploy
Manage
Govern (that spans all phases)
When developing SOA-based solutions, you can adopt the SOA lifecycle by mapping what activities are performed in which phase and also identify which tools and products can be used to fulfill activities in that phase. The lifecycle, as shown in the following figure, outlines the key IBM products that could be used to fulfill some of the key activities in each phase to deliver the solution. Products marked in bold are the ones we will be covering in this book.