The importance of schema design in SOA

Schemas must be developed with a variety of design considerations such as reuse, graceful versioning, flexibility and tool support, all of which can significantly impact the success of service implementation projects. This article explains the role of schemas in a Web services environment, describes the qualities of a well-designed schema, and provides some pointers for achieving that good design. It also provides guidelines a creating a Naming and Design Rules (NDR) document that forces the consideration of design issues at an enterprise level before service implementation begins.