Organizations face quite different challenges in laying out a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) blueprint. Internal integration needs may be more straightforward, but business models may focus less on internal integration than external partners or customers. Traditional approaches like EAI, however, are notoriously inflexible and expensive. The author has been consulted by many such organizations leveraging agile development practices and Web services to reduce the cost of older approaches to address their integration and new development needs. The simple addition of Web services interfaces, however, typically remains as inflexible as approaches previously available. Only through the application of Service-Oriented Architecture can C-level executives build and leverage loosely coupled Web services that are flexible enough to respond to ongoing change in the larger environment. This blueprint provides a clear methodology to guide SOA implementations. ISBN 978-0-615-24703-8