This first part of the book sets the context for the remainder of the book by explaining the principles of service orientation, as a business phenomenon enabled by developments in technology.

Chapter 1 provides a conceptual overview, defines the core terminology and introduces the pivotal idea of service-oriented architecture (SOA). Service orientation presents some massive cultural and technical challenges that cross three areas that have traditionally worked largely in isolation from one another: business process improvement, application development, and software operations. We provide a simple example of how the idea of a service can provide a unifying thread for drawing together these areas, along with some guidance for selling this approach to business management.

The remainder of part 1 maps out the foundation technologies required for practical application. Most of these technologies are developing out of previous well-established generations of technology. At the same time, they are based on standards that are complex as well as changing. Rather than attempting the impossible task of reviewing and documenting all of these technologies and standards we provide an essentially abstract primer designed for maximum resilience to the pace of change; a list of useful evolving Internet information sources is provided at the back of the book. For example, our emphasis is on the general idea of a software service, rather than specifically on a Web service, unless of course the context demands it.