Launched in February 2007 and co-sponsored by webMethods and ZapThink, the site is a comprehensive educational resource, designed to foster mastery of SOA concepts, techniques and skills. iTKO shares the site’s goal of addressing a critical shortage of qualified SOA architects within the enterprise by providing users with a formalized curriculum for advancing SOA knowledge and experience.

iTKO’s founder and Chief Architect of LISA SOA testing software, John Michelsen, will present the following initial SOA Testing Master Class curriculum, available as videos or downloadable files on the site:

• 101-level Introduction to SOA Testing overview
• 102-level Concepts of SOA Testing as it relates to SOA Lifecycle Governance
• 201-level Hands-on Training in Web Services testing
• A free download of iTKO’s LISA WS-Testing™ WSDL/SOAP testing tool, which interoperates with the X-Registry software provided by webMethods on the site, giving architects and developers a free introductory suite of SOA Governance tools
• The SOA Quality Library of whitepapers, analyst content, podcasts and blogs of additional educational material on SOA Testing

“Although the ability to deliver SOA applications has advanced, many still need to be educated on the necessity for solid testing techniques to establish the trust levels required for widespread SOA adoption,” said Michelsen. “SOA design involves much more than hooking up Web services or repositories according to protocols. Governance is about ensuring that the structural, behavioral and performance business requirements expected from the implementations are met. SOA Master Class Online is another step toward that proper education and getting the most quality out of SOA.”

“Quality Assurance organizations are jumping in to the SOA game as more Enterprises get serious about SOA deployment,” said Miko Matsumura, host of SOA Master Class Online and vice president of SOA products at webMethods. "The curriculum provided by SOA Link member iTKO should go far in providing a meaningful entry point for QA personnel seeking to get involved in SOA."

The SOA Master Class curriculum focuses on providing practitioners with the ability to move from a tactical view of SOA to a strategic perspective. It establishes a social network that gives SOA practitioners, architects and evaluators a wide range of vendor-neutral curricula and content as well as clearly-labeled vendor information, including product demonstrations and downloadable versions of SOA tools.

iTKO has a history of working with enterprises to solve complex software quality issues. The company’s deep experience designing and building mission-critical enterprise software for world-class clients provides a foundation of knowledge about the challenges of maintaining quality in the face of complexity.

On the site, Michelsen presents a curriculum on SOA testing at practitioner and architect levels, and hands-on training videos on Web Services testing are also presented through the www.soamasterclass.com site. The company plans to continue its efforts to support the initiative by working with other SOA Masters to put forth the most relevant, useful information available.