Service Oriented Architecture — SOA

Personal impact: closing the skills gap

You've got a roadmap to guide your business and a framework to lay the groundwork for flexible IT. Now, are your employees and partners prepared to make the most of SOA innovation? Aligning business strategy and IT change means your people need to have skills to understand a both business and technical concepts and skills.

T-shaped skills, where business savvy meets technical proficiency

In fact, a recent poll revealed 56 percent of IBM customers cited lack of skills as the leading inhibitor to SOA. IBM is offering new tools and certification programs to help your business develop teams of individuals with "T-shaped" skills. Like the capital letter "T", these skills are both broad and deep, encompassing both broad business skills and deep technical understanding. Through innovative interactive tools, online access to resources, classroom, distance learning roadmaps and university programs, IBM is committed to fostering learning environments to help your business successfully prepare your people with the skills they need. Keep reading to learn about our specific innovative offerings.

Gaming SOA to visualize its impact on your business

IBM has developed Innov8, an immersive 3-D educational game simulator designed to bridge the gap between the roles of IT teams and business leaders in your organization. Serious gaming--simulations which have the look and feel of a game but correspond to non-game events or processes such as business operations--has emerged as a successful method to retrain or develop new skills. The Innov8 simulator is a result of the annual IBM SOA case study competition among graduate students at Duke University and the University of North Carolina. The game, which can be played with a joystick, is based on Web 2.0 technology and allows players to visualize how an SOA impacts different parts of the organization. Together, users can literally see business processes, identify bottlenecks, and explore ‘what if’ scenarios before SOA is deployed.

Meet up in the metaverse

Further extending Web 2.0 capabilities in a learning environment, IBM is launching a Metaversity in Second Life complete with SOA education and online learning tools. Second Life is an Internet-based virtual world which cultivates a user-friendly atmosphere for distance and online learning, with a more personal touch. The capabilities of virtual distance learning close the gap offering more personalized interaction.

Watch, listen, read and learn

Additionally, IBM is launching the Impact Channel on IBM TV, an online portal that contains webcasts, podcasts, demos, white papers and other resources targeted to business and IT professionals as well as others looking to develop T-shaped skills. Access to these resources can provide a foundation for understanding complex ideas in less complex ways.

SOA certification programs

IBM has enhanced its SOA certification and education programs with new self-paced and instructor led courses that are conducted online and in classrooms. With more than 218 SOA-based courses for every level in the organization, IBM’s SOA curriculum provides the roadmap to master highly sought-after SOA industry skills.

A degree of SOA success

IBM also continues to foster relationships with higher education institutions and is working with hundreds of colleges and universities around the world on SOA curriculum. Universities are beginning to offer courses and even majors which incorporate business and technology training in disciplines like SOA and Service Science. This movement is fundamental to the evolution of SOA developing a skilled and savvy workforce.

Next Steps

Want to learn more about our new SOA skill building offerings? Attend the launch webcast.