What is the best predictor of SOA success? Most SOA success stories to date have a common demoninator, in that they have a robust and disciplined governance framework in place. The enterprise knows what it wants and what to expect from its SOA efforts.
IBM's Scott Simmons just posted this informative piece on how governance can make the difference between service-oriented architecture and service-oriented anarchy.
"Success with SOA does not 'just happen,'" Simmons writes. Instead, all successful SOA stories have a common theme -- "they have implemented a governance approach to support the design, development, deployment, and operations of an SOA solution framework."
An SOA governance strategy should have at least four characteristics:
1) Give it teeth: According to Simmons, "the definition and enforcement of policies and procedures to support SOA design, development, deployment, and management of services with a corresponding set of methods, techniques, and tools to support SOA and the tactical and strategic requirements of the business."
2) Give it a center of excellence. An SOA center of excellence should bring in experts from both IT and the business.
3) Get an executive sponsor. An SOA effort needs an executive with clout who can represent the effort at higher levels of the organization -- very important at budget time.
4) Think long term: Simmons says that SOA is a long-term project, with long-term results. "SOA is an incremental and evolutionary change to IT and the organization, and benefits from an iterative implementation."
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