SOA tools...

I get asked regularly what tools can be used to define a service architecture, and the problem is that most of the big tools in this space are too complicated, too big and fundamentally don't have strong concepts of service in them.

This means I'm afraid that the only tool I can really recommend at the moment for the creation and sharing of a service architecture is a Wiki. Pathetic really but I've not yet come across anything that matches it in terms of flexibility and the ability to navigate the information. It really comes into its own when you start thinking about how process and Service work together as the process elements can link to the service elements via the Wiki.

To draw the images I use Open Office mostly, Visio occasionally and to do the 3D movies and images I sometimes create its down to PovRay. SOA at this level really is a new field from a tooling perspective and while XML, WSDL and BPEL tools are improving there still hasn't been much of a desire to create a business service modelling tool that puts all of those things into context.

Unless anyone can say different?

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