Service Architecture and Web Services enable plug-and-play systems and expanded connectivity, both inside of and between businesses. By implementing services, organizations can achieve unprecedented flexibility and ease of making connections between systems and trading partners. They can use existing application functionality in unanticipated ways. And they can make data available where and when it is needed, securely, even if the consumer uses the latest mobile technology. The notion of plug-and-play software components morphs into plug-and-play business transactions--if you can design the “right” services. This report helps by providing practical tests, guidelines, and recommendations that services designers can use now. In addition, it shows how techniques that you learned with prior generations of IT technology can be repurposed to help you create well-defined services.