SOA Governance Maturity Model

Successful SOA rollout is dependent on SOA Governance. Despite the relative maturity of SOA, SOA Governance remains one of the most challenging barriers and key causes of SOA failure.

The issues commonly stem from approach & planning. In terms of approach, it should begin with a vision that sets some fundamental goals and objectives based on the culture and practices of the enterprise. Next, a roadmap should be developed to guide in the direction and incremental improvement of SOA Governance capabilities. SOA Governance Maturity Model (SGMM) is an effective tool to aid in the implementation of SOA Governance.

It would be appropriate to begin the discussion with a definition of SOA Governance. I am not going to do that, since there is plenty of good references on the Web. However, I am going to jump to the following diagram to review key SOA Governance domains and touchpoints:

Project Portfolio Management -In a typical enterprise, there are multiple concurrent projects that may be both producing or consuming services. After project funding and initiation, when solution implementation begins, a review of the project is typically done to determine what new services may be harvested or what existing services may be reused.

Service Modeling & Implementation - If the project produces new services (or requires change to existing services), there is a hand-off from PPM to Service Modeling & Implementation domain. Typically, multiple quality checks and reviews are planned to make sure services are implemented according to architectural guidelines and standards.

IT Service Management – Once the services are implemented, there is a hand-off from Service Modeling & Implementation back to PPM and on to IT Service Management domain for deployment and operation…

So, as noted at a high level, there are multiple hand-offs that take place between different groups. Sometimes it may even involve different organizations (i.e. outsourcing). All of this contributes to the complexities of SOA Governance implementation, as an enterprise tries to bring about the necessary changes to operationalize the model. It is impossible to bring all of this together in a single step. It is a “process” that requires management.

Capability Maturity Model (CMM) provides an appropriate model to develop SOA Governance capabilities. An SOA Governance Maturity Model (SGMM) helps realize a vision and continually make incremental improvements with minimal disruption to the business.

SGMM:

Level1 - Initial - At this stage, there is no or minimal SOA Governance. Services are developed ad hoc without appropriate quality control reviews or conformance to a service portfolio.

Level2 - Repeatable – At this stage, there are some processes defined. Typically, the practices are implemented at project level.

Level3 - Defined – At this stage, processes are fully implemented and practiced at the enterprise level.

Level4 - Managed – At this stage, processes are monitored and metrics are captured (i.e. # of projects, # of services implemented, % of service reuse…)

Level5 - Optimizing – At this stage, metrics are analyzed to implement process improvement.