The bus called SOA is at a crossroad, and the red light is on. Avenue of Applications that continues to the left looks just like the road the bus came from: frequent traffic jams, well-designed segments with nice and wide lanes merging via poorly regulated cross-sections, often without much hope of getting through. A mix of New York, Mexico City and Sao Paolo traffic patterns with patches of Palo Alto scenery in between. Without knowing what is coming next, the road is extremely unpredictable for those who are hoping for a timely arrival at its many destinations. Planning a trip along the Avenue of Applications is just like staring at a crystal ball hoping for a blimp of vision.
To our right is the Road of Mergers with straight and much wider lanes, allowing for more dense traffic, something like main arteries of Beijing, but with a restricted number of vehicles, minus the bikes. It definitely looks more predictable, however you cannot stop at every corner, the stops are strategically placed at much wider distances to enable moving large crowds by a constant speed. Walking in between the stops seems to be time consuming, and you realize right away that you have to choose wisely where to exit, since for many destinations in between the stops, quite long walks are simply inevitable.
Straight ahead is the Street of Business Processes that looks somewhat bumpy, just like any other road under construction. By the looks of it, it will be a very nice ride, with lanes opening and closing according to the traffic volume and with many more stops along the way. They say that vehicles driving on it, however, need to be able to stop and speed up in matter of seconds, since catching the traffic flow will take a lot of skill and concentration. Yet, the speed and ability to predict your arrivals, coupled with many stops to choose from make it definitely my favorite.
As we are waiting for the light to turn green on this critical intersection, I definitely want to try the Street of Business Processes for at least few blocks. Approaching the driver of the bus, I ask, “When will the construction end?” He points to a small sign along the sidewalk saying: “Construction ongoing, proceed with caution.” “What does that mean?” - I ask. “I don’t know” he says, “every time I arrive at this juncture, my line instructions are to turn either left or right. It looks better every time, but I am not sure where it leads, and if there are U-turns, or any connections to the other two roads. Sort of an uncharted territory. My company cannot take that risk, although we are announcing the coverage as soon as the road is open. I guess one of these days it will be ready.” I turn back to the crowd on the SOA bus, and they all seemed to be in agreement with the driver’s fear. I decide to get out of the SOA bus. “ Is there a SOA 2.0 line operating?” He closed the door and circled with his index finger as in a sign that he will be back.
Hoping for a short wait, and maybe a SOA 2.0 line willing to brave the new road, I waive to the bus driver as he speeds up the Avenue of Applications, with his blue and white bus. Back in the dust and fumes, I fix my eyes on the other side of the crossroads into the farthest sight of the Business Process Road and start wondering what may lie behind this infamous construction.
I imagine intelligent parking spots that allow for lookup from a vehicle approaching few blocks ahead. You see the numbered spots popping in and out of availability on your navigation screen as you try to hedge your bet with the nearby parking lots that constantly update number of free spots. A parking spot is just like a standard interface to your many needs that are along your way – a barbershop, grocery store, a restaurant, pharmacy… Parking lots are all the same, yet they provide you with the sort of a “plug-in” to your desired need due to their proximity to the required service. Did I say service? I meant something you need and value in a moment of passing by.
I see a huge number of choices available to drivers and people walking along the street sidewalks. Each choice is also assigned to the parking spots available and they are all associated with other choices on the street providing for a bundled stop for satisfying your needs with a great information on the best route to each service. I said service again, OK, let me keep that term. An interesting feature that I envision is the ability to time your stops and to send signals to your chosen providers of services that you have stopped the car in their vicinity. You may even broadcast your planned route to make your experience smoother, yet still change it as circumstances arise.
Just as I get carried away in my imagination, and started envisioning the buildings along the street and what kind of vehicles would have to be useful around its many possibilities, a construction truck approaches behind me. “Sir, are you waiting for a bus?” says an unusually young driver, an even younger female colleague in the passenger seat. They both wear large construction helmets, somewhat strangely cut from behind, a combination of a biker and a snow boarder helmet. “I guess I am… although not sure if and when will it come again? Are you from a working crew on the new street?” I say. “Please jump in, we’ll give you a ride to our site, we have just been called for by our project manager. If we are lucky we will be back here in thirty minutes, I doubt the bus will be anywhere close by then”, the young “engineer” said. “OK, I am a curious one. Let’s go”. I jump on the back row, to see to my own amazement a package of strange tools. Little they knew, I was ecstatic with this opportunity. Not being able to contain my excitement, I asked, “What kind of work do you perform at the site?” “We measure crowd flux at each of service joints?” said the driver’s colleague. “The devices next to you are placed at certain spots that the site manager wants to assess. The, we program them to simulate services consumption at certain proximity range of the devices and we then generate a random traffic flow on the street to determine congestion rate that can be created by a combination of services offered in certain areas. Isn’t that cool? We can tell the site manager what kind of positioning of each type of services is optimal for the area. Site managers are responsible for making sure that allocation of spots to all service providers is optimal for crowd to clear the main passages at all times.” My brain is bulging a bit. I look at the devices next to me and I only see small boxes with some sort of wireless modems attached to them. “Yeah, that is cool” I say, “How far is the site you are going to assess?” “It is right here,” says the young engineer. “Want to take a peak.” “Sure, hmm, OK I have few minutes to spare” I try not to look too exited. “C’mon dude, you have at least a day to spare waiting for your SOA bus over there. But, we’ll get you back in a hurry, this is really cool, you won’t regret stopping by.”
The site manager shows up in an instant of our arrival. “ I am glad you are here Jake.” he said to the young engineer. “Lara, how’s your thesis coming?” he greeted the young engineer’s colleague. “It is almost done Stan. I have few more measurements to gather in order to complete the validation of Dr. Rajan’s equations. You will like the results. Let me introduce to you…” “Vasco” I say, “I am glad to meet you Stan.” “ Do I know you from somewhere?” Stan asks. I said, “I don’t know, maybe we crossed paths before, I could say we are about the same age. There were many opportunities to meet me around these kinds of sites.” Lara glared at me for a moment with sort of suspicion. Jake added, “I guess Stan you read many articles on model based SOA. Vasco may have authored some. Am I right, Mr. Drecun? I recognized you at the intersection. Excuse me for not being forthright, I just wanted to have you come and see what we are doing. I sensed you would not pass on the opportunity. Being close to a site that follows SOA building philosophy must be something you want to spare a minute to see.” I feel much better now. I am not fully lost, I am just curious and I have to admit these youngsters tricked me and went few steps ahead of me. Trying to reestablish some sort of authority (why - I do not know, I guess to show respect for Stan’s position), I proceed: “ Well Jake, you did make me wonder back in the truck. I could only assume what you were doing, but to tell you the truth I would have not bet on my guesses.”
Stan was glad I stopped by and we all went to the site. Coffee did smell good, and we each took a cup to fill. The site crew all mingled around Jake and Lara as they started discussing where to set up the “service call simulators” as they called them. I was so happy to see so many young people on a job site. In a minute or two, they agreed and the devices were mounted on designated locations. Stan explained to me that they were in fact using a model based simulation procedure whereby multiple possible orchestrations of services consumption have been compared to the statistical models drawn from demographic studies. What they were really looking for was a balancing equation of managing resources availability to smooth out the incoming traffic and to synchronize it with what is actually happening on the street and in the immediate surroundings. I always knew it was possible, but never actually seen it in practice. “ We used some of the model standards that you may be very familiar with….” Stan paused for a brief moment. “I now remember where I have seen you, it was the conference on model based enterprise architecture, where you introduced FERA.” I could only guess, but Stan did confirm that all their simulation models are developed based on an extension of the FERA ontology to capture possible orchestrations and to create models for services consumption.
After few more minutes, Jake emerged from the crowd. “We are done here. I can take you back if you want.” “Let’s go I said” shaking hands with Stan and thanking for the opportunity to stop by and see first hand how he builds the site. He was glad I stopped by and said that he was looking forward to reading about my visit. “For sure” I said, could I also mention the site you are building? “I’ll probably be on my next one by then. Go ahead if you want, but please mention the entire crew as well, these kids are impressive.” As we were leaving the financial services mall Stan was building, I stepped onto the sidewalk to get into Jake’s truck. A business space leasing sign next to the main door was listing types of services available for setting up in the mall. I could see anything from retail, insurance, family finances, mortgages… a usual list of suspects aside from all other human needs services from coffee shops to yoga gyms. One listing caught my eye, and I knew immediately that Stan, Jake and Lara have done a great job synchronizing the future traffic. The listing read: “space travel insurance – trip simulation office”.
Back in the truck, Jake gave me few more hints about many job sites he visited along the street. I asked him for his own opinion on when would the street open for business. “It is capable of taking on people and businesses right now sir, it just has not been fully connected to the rest of the infrastructure in other parts of the city. You have seen few cars on the street, they are simply stopping by everywhere where the business is available. I think it will be how it starts. No fanfare, no glossy billboards, politician speeches and no “Wall Street” flavor commercials. Just people who enjoy its versatility and appreciate a great environment to connect life and business. It is the street’s balancing act that I like a lot, and it needs to be discovered by first hand experience, just like a great jazz band cannot be described. You come to listen or you skip the fun altogether.” “I guess you are right Jake.”
As Lara and Jake wave to me, I step out at the intersection and wait another hour or so until the bus arrived. It was the same driver, although the bus seemed different, other then the same blue and white stripes. “ I told you man, I’ll pick you up here when I arrive, since there is nothing to see over there.” He said in a soothing eastern Indian accent. He was somewhat glad to see me at the same spot. I guess he felt somewhat sorry for not being more assertive to stop me from getting out here at the first place. “Jump on buddy. I’ll take you back home.” Somehow I like this guy’s frankness and sincerity.
As I set my sight down the Street of Business Processes for a last moment before boarding the bus again, I remembered excitement and enthusiasm of Stan’s crew. “Cool”, I said, stepping on the bus’s platform… “how’s the traffic ahead on the Avenue of Applications?” The driver gleamed with pride replying, “No, we have changed the route – I am taking you back on the Road of Mergers. We will be back much faster then before. I like driving on this fast road, there are no many cars, mostly buses and very few stops. This is a paradise for bus drivers. Passengers though seem to be very tired, I guess they have to walk a lot in between stops. But, they usually take naps between longer stops. These new buses are great for taking a nap. Go, take a nap, I let you know when your stop is due.” “Great” I say, fixing my sight on the glossy three-letter acronym on the driver’s hat. “Wake me up when we arrive. By the way, which stop do you recommend that I take.” “Where is your destination?” asks he. “At the 2015 Analyst Place.” I said. “You can take either stop number 212 or 213. You will have a forty-five minutes walk either way. I suggest you take 213, this ride is smooth, and you can nap a bit longer. And you are lucky you are on the new upgraded BPEL bus, express lines do not stop at either of these two stops. Only BPEL buses stop at every stop on the Road of Mergers.”
The driver’s innocent and comforting smile and his pristinely clean blue coat looked very reassuring. Very sophisticated look for a driver, I thought. Maybe the BPEL line is an executive class line. “How much do I owe for the ride?” I asked, curious, but partially prompted by the driver’s “classy look and feel”. In addition, the seats looked too comfortable for a town line. “Don’t worry,” he said, “You’ll get the bill over the e-mail, our wireless secure data transfer already picked up your data from one of your gadgets as you entered the bus. It may have been even directly drawn off your account if you had such profile settings in place.” “Cool”, I mumbled with my eyes-popping out, “…kind-a-scary-cool”, I managed a friendlier smile. “I guess I will have to wait to get back home to find that out.”
I hope the weather gives me a break during the forty-five minutes walk. After all, it is a Great Lakes’ February. Then I prepared for a nap soothed by subtle appearances of the bus company’s three-letter acronym floating and mingling with the word “BPEL” over a display somehow mysteriously tucked within the bus’s thick windows. I even think the word “SOA” appeared discretely from time to time in this intricate and delicately designed transparent display arrangement. A lot of innovation money went into these new buses for sure, even it was obvious that most of it was used for subtle marketing purpose… But, I’d rather enjoy the road then the bus. After all, that is where I want to spend my time, where I can balance business and life, as Jake said, just as rhythm and tune intertwine in a great jazz piece.
Although I could still see contours of some interesting places and people passing by outside, it did not matter much to me since I could not stop wherever I wanted whenever I wanted. And it was too late to plan stops. Creative window display and comfy seat indeed made me take a nap in a hurry, and my friendly driver will wake me up just before my stop. I could hardly wait to get back home to check the price of the ticket on a brand new BPEL liner along the Road of Mergers.
