Two SOA studies hit the streets this week, and both seem to confirm what we've been seeing within the SOA space in recent times: that return on investment -- for the business -- has become the most important criteria for SOA going forward. And one of the studies suggests that companies may be retrenching on SOA plans.
Does this reflect a new skepticism about SOA; that maybe the methodology isn't delivering on all its promises?
I think the results show us something else: the fact that businesses are seriously seeking ROI from SOA means that SOA is no longer seen as something that is confined to IT shops. We could quibble over numbers, but it can be assumed that in many cases, SOA methodologies have helped streamline many IT operations and cut development time, thanks to reuse of services and interfaces.
Now, SOA has risen to the level of a business strategy -- and expectations are naturally higher as a result.
In a study I was involved in, the latest Evans Data survey on SOA and Web services, we found that determining the return on investment for a SOA project is the greatest challenge facing developers working on SOA programs. The survey of almost 400 developers and managers finds that almost one in five cited ROI as the most challenging aspect, more than identifying available Web services, testing and validation, or absorbing the expense.
Savings from services reuse is the most common economic benefit in SOA projects globally, the survey also found. The issue is that ROI is something that needs to be measured from business results from areas across the enterprise. As discussed frequently at this blogsite, initial results from SOA-based efforts are delivering IT cost efficiencies, but the impact on business agility or improved business processes is tough to measure.
The survey also found that four out of five participating organizations, 84%, either have service oriented architecture in place or plan to do so within the next 12 months. For the most part, Evans Data surveys going back to 2004 have found SOA to be underway or planned in a minority of companies. It was only at the end of 2007 that this number crossed in to the majority, when 60% reported having SOA in place, or planning for adoption within the coming year.
The survey also found that companies desperately need enterprise or SOA architects with both business and technical skills. Within the next 12 months, two out of five respondents will be engaged full-time in SOA and Web services projects. In addition, close to seven out of ten respondents report they need professionals skilled in the merging of business and technology, and would consider creating a special role within their organizations for an architect who can very precisely translate business processes into IT services.
Another new survey, issued by Gartner, found that SOA doesn't seem to be as popular as it was a year ago. Gartner says that since the beginning of 2008, "there has been a dramatic fall in the number of organizations that are planning to adopt SOA for the first time." Last year, in 2007, 53% of organizations in surveys were planning to launch their first SOA forays, a number that dropped to 25% this year.
Currently, 53% of the companies Gartner surveyed have SOA-based projects in progress. (Presumably, many would have been those in the planning stages in last year's survey.) Sixteen percent had no plans at all to adopt SOA, up from six percent in 2007.
Daniel Sholler, research vice president at Gartner, said organizations are more aware these days that SOA is not something adopted on the fly, and that a deliberative governance process is needed to make SOA a worthy business venture. And, as also noted frequently here at this blogsite, there's a shortage of professionals with the skills to bring it all together:
“Organizations without a clear business case for SOA and without a plan to develop or acquire the necessary skills are justified in taking a cautious approach, and delaying SOA adoption plans for the coming year. The focus should be on creating shared services and the governance processes necessary for sharing within a reasonable domain. Larger organizations (more than 5,000 employees) are challenged to create enterprise governance.�
The Gartner statement observes that "the two major reasons that organizations choose for not pursuing SOA are a lack of skills and expertise, and no viable business case." Gartner also said that "conversations with many Gartner clients have shown that there is a great deal of confusion about how to construct a business case for SOA. Even if a valid business case exists, then the required skills are often unavailable in-house, and the costs and effort to develop in-house skills and acquire outside expertise are often daunting."
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