SOA is a business-driven IT architectural approach that supports agile business innovation and optimization. SOA enables you to integrate your business as linked, repeatable business tasks, or services. But pursuing SOA on an ad hoc, scattered basis can drastically reduce its benefits. Fortunately, there is a smarter approach: we can learn from the thousands of clients who have chosen IBM for their SOA deployments. IBM has solidified the best practices and lessons learned from these experiences to help extend the value of SOA deployments in a set of guiding principles we call Smart SOA.