Whose Needs?

This article on xml.com states...

The discussion... will help readers recognize the need to coordinate a sequence of SOAP requests and responses, so that the total process looks like a business transaction.

(My underlining of the word "need".)

So whose needs are being represented here? Who actually needs this capability?

A bad habit we have is to avoid questioning the underlying assumptions that we build our concepts on. Distributed transaction protocols are not a "need". They are a means to an end. Why are we trying to recreate them in SOAP?

An alternative is compensating transactions which are also part of a proposed SOAP extension. This is a more practical alternative.

The question then becomes why do compensating transactions need to be part of a wire protocol? Whose design will fit my needs? How do you know?

Separation of concerns should be a key architectural principle. Can we keep the eager standards committees at bay long enough for clear evaluations?