At the came time, soa also takes care that both of these factors that are responsible for better productivity are available within the organization itself. However, one aspect that business must not miss out on is that by advocating soa alone, nothing can be achieved. This means that simply a standalone technique is not going to do any good to the company.
Therefore, it is important that SOA is combined with an improvement tool so that the company can get the maximum benefits. The Six Sigma methodology is probably the best option available in this respect.
The Consolidation Method
In order to understand how the consolidation process works, it is important to understand SOA. SOA is in charge of handling planning, analyzing and coming up with new concept based services which work according to the goals and other mission objectives that have been defined during the implementation stage. This is one of the main reasons why Service Oriented Architecture largely is influenced by the management decisions, especially during the implementation process.
This clearly points out towards the fact that SOA alone is not all that sufficient when it comes to performing quality checks. This also means that SOA clearly needs to be combined with a quality improvement technique, which in this case would by the implementation of Six Sigma. Using a Six Sigma methodology like DFSS (i.e., Design For Six Sigma), although somewhat untraditional to use along with Service Oriented Architecture, could still help since it takes care of decisions related to the formulation of the plan for introducing new services in the market.
This is achieved with the help of a more practical approach and the available statistics and other relevant data.
Below are the five phases of Service Oriented Architecture:
Definition stage: This is where the Design For Six Sigma comes in, with respect to defining the objectives of the Service Oriented Architecture - especially during the implementation stage of the project. By adopting the DFSS methodology, it becomes relatively easier to curb any chance of project redundancies.
Developing the Concept: During this stage, DFSS simply helps the developers with regards to formulating and coming up with a design as a part of their innovation strategy. This is obviously achieved due to the financial as well as the human resources available at hand. If DFSS is absent in this stage, the developers will surely delay the implementation of the project.
Design Stage: This is an important stage, since it helps staff in realizing the reason and the importance of the redesigning of the company's processes so that the business can assure better productivity - and of course, overall customer satisfaction.
Validation stage: In order to gain complete control over the feasibility of the entire project, it is important that companies comply with the validation stage, which is already designed by the Design For Six Sigma methodology. Once the test proves to be a success, the implementation stage can be carried on in the different processes of the organization.
Control Stage: This is a stage where DFSS steps into the picture, in order to ensure that everything is going according to plan with the help of SOA.
There is no doubt that SOA can be beneficial, but only if combined with the Six Sigma methodology. Once both of them are paired up, organizations will become much more effective and consistent in their business activities.
Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solutions - Six Sigma Online ( http://www.sixsigmaonline.org ) offers online six sigma training and certification classes for six sigma professionals including, lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.
