Good SOA governance (no, SOA isn't really dead, and neither is SOA governance) just got easier. SOA Software's new Portfolio Manager provides any organization pursuing SOA initiatives a new way to align business and IT/SOA objectives through better governance and planning.
Here's a bit from their press release:
"Portfolio Manager(tm) is an SOA portfolio management product that helps customers better align IT investments with business initiatives and become more adaptable to their changing requirements. It helps customers identify candidate services and build an SOA roadmap through SOA Modeling (i.e. top-down analysis), Asset Identification (i.e., bottom-up application inventory), and SOA Roadmap Management (i.e., service identification, prioritization and allocation) processes. To achieve these goals Portfolio Manager functions as part of SOA Software's unified SOA Governance automation suite."
According to the press the release, the product is available now and starts at $50k. Of course, like many governance products it's not cheap. But the when applied to a reasonable-sized SOA project it's a reasonable investment--especially when it comes to increasing the effectiveness and potential ROI.
The intent behind the tool is to provide a framework for organizations to maximize their SOA investments, mainly through better planning and priority processes. Once an organization moves beyond pilot projects or limited deployments into a broader SOA program, defining what services are needed when, and identifying what the services need to consist of, is crucial. SOA Software's Portfolio Manager provides a way for organizations to understand the relationships between services and prioritize their development based on business needs.
Based on what I've seen, SOA Software's Portfolio Manager is a solid step in the right direction for SOA governance. While not for every organization, the product has enough compelling attributes to make it worthwhile for larger organizations committed to SOA to evaluate.
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