Service-orientation design principles  Service-orientation design principles are proposed principles for developing the solution logic of services within service-oriented architectures (SOA). The success of software development based on any particular design paradigm is never assured. Software developed under the service-oriented design paradigm carries even greater risks. This is because a service-oriented architecture usually spans multiple business areas and requires considerable initial analysis. Therefore, SOA developed without concrete guidelines is very likely to fail. To ensure that the move towards service-orientation is a positive change that delivers on its promised benefits, it is helpful to adopt a set of rules. The service-orientation design principles may be broadly categorized as follows, following Thomas Erl's, "SOA Principles of Service Design":  It is the application of these design principles that create technology independent services and hence provide interoperability in the long term. These design principles serve as a guideline for identifying services. The application of these principles helps in attaining the underlying goals linked with the adoption of service-orientation in the first place. These goals are strategic in nature i.e. long term and look beyond the immediate needs of an organization. These strategic objectives could be summarized into the following seven goals & benefits:  Each of the above goals and benefits directly helps towards developing an agile organization that can quickly respond to the ever-changing market conditions with reduced efforts and time. The service-orientation design principles help in distinguishing a service-oriented solution from a traditional object-oriented solution by promoting distinct design characteristics. The presence of these characteristics in a service-oriented solution greatly improves the chances of realizing the aforementioned goals and benefits. Erl has identified four service-orientation characteristics as follows:  A vendor-neutral service-oriented solution helps to evolve the underlying technology architecture in response to ever changing business requirements. By not being dependent on a particular vendor, any aging infrastructure could be replaced by more efficient technologies without the need for redesigning the whole solution from scratch. This also helps in creating a heterogeneous technology environment where particular business automation requirements are fulfilled by specific technologies. Within a SOA, the development of solution logic is driven by the needs of the business and is designed in a manner that focuses on the long-term requirements of the business. As a result, the technology architecture is more aligned with the business needs. Unlike traditional silo-based application development, a SOA takes into account the requirements of either the whole of the enterprise or at least some considerable part of it. As a result, the developed services are interoperable and reusable across the different segments of the enterprise.