Service-Oriented Architecture is becoming the leading architecture for IT, and it is changing the way organisations work. IT is slowly but steadily gaining maturity, and becoming the flexible yet stable and reliable support for business it should be. At the same time, IT is regaining its potential to create real business innovation. SOA will be an enormous step in the right direction for any organisation, but only if it is not approached as solely a technology issue. Technology is very interesting, and poses many challenges, but the real value will only be found when addressing the many coherent aspects that define the workings of business and IT in modern organisations. _SOA for Profit_ explains the value and essence of SOA. It makes SOA practical and pragmatic: turning models and vision into an actionable approach to start doing SOA in projects that deliver businessvalue. It emphasizes the importance of governance and architecture and shows that a broad vision of SOA is essential for deriving benefits from it. This book will bridge the gap between business and IT by providing tools and a common language that can be used when starting up a strategic dialogue that is the basis of business driven IT. Written by a team of authors from Sogeti and IBM, _SOA for Profit_ is a real-world book: based on experiences with real companies and real projects.