What would an economic downturn mean for SOA?

On January 7th, Joe McKendrick posted an interesting question on his blog on zdnet. He asked what an economic downturn might mean for SOA. His post is at: ( http://blogs.zdnet.com/service-oriented/?p=1036 ). He says that with the recent hysteria of doom and gloom over the state of the economy, and while he believes that the economy is resilient, it’s only natural to see ups and downs in business cycles. However, he says that the current incarnation of SOA has only been around during a period of upward economic growth and he contemplates might be the impact of an economic downturn. You can read his post but the gist is that he feels that while some adjustments may need to be made, he and members of his SOA consortium believe that SOA efforts will continue to press on, especially if SOA is closely tied to business value. One industry practice leader said that: In a “downturn, people will have to be more creative, and will turn towards SOA.”

So, in summary, McKendrick suggests that the outlook for SOA for 2008 is quite bullish, no matter how rocky the economy gets. He does suggest, however, that the way SOA is sold to organizations -- as well as implemented -- may shift.