There's been a lot of discussion recently on how the upcoming recession will impact SOA. My rule of thumb is that in good times businesses care about agility while in bad times they care about efficiency. So, if you want your SOA initiative to survive the recession, you better deliver (not talk about) efficiency and cost savings.
It's only two months ago that Dave Linthicum gave me a lot of flack when I criticized his statement to (and I quote) "resist the temptation to redirect resources toward tactical business needs."
However, recently Dave changed his tune when he said, "the best approach is to focus on short term objectives that are directly related to the generation of revenue." Dave, it's good to see you're listening... even though it took a while :-)
While commenting more on Dave's flip-flopping would be rubbing salt in the wound, I think the advice I gave in the series of responses (1, 2, 3, 4) to Dave's original post are still appropriate as we enter the upcoming recession.