# Can someone explain Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-service-oriented-architecture-soa/466152
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 2, 2008, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-service-oriented-architecture-soa/466152 "2008-10-02T12:37:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Wikipedia_Cites)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2008, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-service-oriented-architecture-soa/466152/1 "2008-10-02T12:37:44Z")
Can someone explain Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)?
Once again, the wikipedia explanation is thorough but theoretical. It’s hard to understand it without a concrete example.
Can someone clear the air. . .
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### Author:  [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2008, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-service-oriented-architecture-soa/466152/2 "2008-10-02T12:42:50Z")
> [@sassyfras](#):
>
> Can someone explain Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)?
>
> Once again, the wikipedia explanation is thorough but theoretical. It’s hard to understand it without a concrete example.
>
> Can someone clear the air. . .
Here’s an example from [whatis.com](http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci929153,00.html):
> [@](#):
>
> Whether you realize it or not, you’ve probably relied upon SOA, perhaps when you made a purchase online. Let’s use Land’s End as an example. You look at their catalog and choose a number of items. You specify your order through one service, which communicates with an inventory service to find out if the items you’ve requested are available in the sizes and colors that you want. Your order and shipping details are submitted to another service which calculates your total, tells you when your order should arrive and furnishes a tracking number that, through another service, will allow you to keep track of your order’s status and location en route to your door. The entire process, from the initial order to its delivery, is managed by communications between the Web services – programs talking to other programs, all made possible by the underlying framework that SOA provides.
(definition is at the link)