SOA is still in its infancy and like all new propositions comes with its own juxtaposition of inflated expectations versus cynicism.
As I engage with enterprise customers in creating and executing multi-year SOA roadmaps, I have seen the multitude of benefits that SOA brings. But there are just as many challenges to SOA as there are benefits. Unless companies have a strategy to address these risks then very little of the benefits that SOA offers will be realized.
Why have the majority of companies not come to this conclusion yet?
Education
There is still a gulf within companies in understanding the difference between a Service Oriented Architecture and a Web Services Architecture. SOA Education is key to not only executives but to the development community that SOA is not purely a technology play but encompasses all aspects of an IT strategy. Without this understanding the non-technical aspects of SOA will not be given its rightful focus. This is why I developed a SOA Domain Model to make sure that all areas of an IT Strategy around SOA are given an equal footing.
Pilot Projects
Companies have seen many benefits when deploying their initial/pilot projects within one line of business. But when companies expand their projects across several lines of business they will not achieve the same level of benefits that were encountered in the pilot projects. This is mainly down to the additional challenges that the extra human involvement brings. Without address these additional challenges SOA initiatives will falter, benefits will not be realised and you may end up with multiple silo-ed SOA solutions.
Working with enterprise customers, talking to colleagues and partners at recent conferences has highlighted the fact that
The #1 reason why enterprises do not reap all of the benefits of SOA is due to the Lack of SOA Governance or an inappropriate implementation of SOA Governance.
“Hope is not a viable SOA strategy” to achieve the benefits that SOA has to offer. Companies require an appropriate SOA governance model to enable businesses to make dynamic and responsive decisions to make sure that all SOA decisions are effective and assist in realizing the benefits of SOA
There is no one SOA governance model that’s fits all enterprises, so in future blogs I will try and explore an approach that companies can utilise to build a customised governance model for your organization
An Enterprise Architect's Musings 