60 second review: the most jargon-laden IT book on the market

And it's called SOA For Profit, A Manager's Guide To Success With Service Oriented Architecture (published by IBM and Sogeti, 250 pages).

I was given this to review. It has proven to be fascinating. How is it possible to pass off such dense, preposterous jargon as a commercially viable book? It discusses 'best practice' in service-oriented architecture. But it's full of this:

"Experience shows that service orientated infrastructure is required, consisting of a self-secured, self-healing, self-configuring and self-optimising standardised communication layer which supports the transformation from a vertical, siloed, application-driven infrastructure into a more horizontal driven approach." (-- Page 174)

And this:

"Both the IT-centric and human-centric services are externalised in the same manner, and the service contract defined by the interface abstracts [sic] the origin of the service." (-- Page 122)

Even the foreword to the book, written by Sogeti chief executive Luc-Francois Salvador, will baffle IT managers seeking practical advice:

"I am convinced that SOA is not only a tactical means of implementing information technology, it also stands for a much more strategic approach of supporting a redesign of organisations in a process-orientated fashion, delivering on the promise of business agility, inherently supported by information systems that not only enable but inspire business change," writes Salvador. "SOA stands for a state of mind that is of great influence on the collaboration between business management and IT to achieve the goal of greater business agility," he continues. "Business agility can only be achieved when the focus shifts from functional, departmental stovepipes towards cross boundary business processes."

Departmental stovepipes?