Rich Turner recently warned us about the danger of calling everything SOA. I have to state that I have witnessed this first hand. In some of more “recent” posts, I mentioned the processes of deciding to use Sonic Software vs. BizTalk Server 2004. During this process it was very clear that the Architects on our teams and the Architects from Microsoft were talking to different languages but delivering the same message. They couldn't agree on terms for the same concepts.
For example, in BizTalk 2004 orchestrations are key. They are the glue that binds “Steps” together. In Sonic, Processes or Itineraries are the glue that binds. They tie Services together. Who's right? Well, when you are trying to speak “SOA”, the apparantly the guy with “Services” in the description seemed to have the leg up. Was this because the BizTalk team got it all wrong by referring to the “flow of a message through a series of services” as an Orchestration? No. The two sides should have just sat down with a glossery of terms and built a cross-reference.
I am sure that in time this will work itself out, but just as the term Web Services has been hijacked to describe everything from XML over HTTP to WSE, it will be a while before the consistency is king.