| Title: |
The Business Case for SOA |
| Author: |
David Sprott |
| Publication Date: |
22 June 2006 |
| Report Type: |
Journal |
| Report Class: |
Best Practice |
| Abstract: |
Over the past few years the software industry has enthusiastically promoted the case for SOA based primarily on its agility characteristics and support for time to market. Today it seems that the case for SOA has been almost universally accepted yet we question whether most enterprises have really thought through the bigger picture. When SOA enters the trough of disillusionment, as it must, it will be really important that the rationale for profound, long term change is clearly articulated.
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| Backgrounder: |
It would be easy to assume that SOA is analogous with agility. Perhaps some of us stop there and work on the basis that loose coupling will deliver the agility that our business or enterprise needs. Perhaps some of us are persuaded that SOA is completely inevitable – that the primary and secondary suppliers of both platforms, tools, application product and services have decided for us that SOA is the future direction and that we simply have to get on the band wagon. But how do you put a value on agility? Particularly in a macro economic climate where most enterprises are tightly controlling IT spend with 12 month ROI being a common policy.
In many enterprises today there is something approaching SOA anarchy - services are being delivered from Line of Business projects with little regard for the possibilities of enterprise reuse, let alone consistency of policy. And the most common outcome is chaos and disillusionment resulting from duplicating, incompatible services.
However this is a transitory stage; in time all enterprises will move to embrace a more broadly based reuse approach, and more important a managed approach to standardization of both business and infrastructure services. Many organizations that are experiencing “service anarchy” are starting to think about how they move beyond this chaotic state. But this does require a more structured approach and dare I say it – investment.
At this stage it’s critical to have well defined arguments for making the necessary investment. Otherwise the SOA project will continue to founder without the senior management support needed to make it happen. And once again the inevitable result will be disillusionment.
In this report we provide a structured basis for articulating the rationale – otherwise known as the business case. Every enterprise and organization will need to develop their own version of this case, but we aim in this report to provide a framework for tha |
| Report Size: |
8 pages |
| Report Access Type: |
 | Bronze (FREE) |
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| Available for separate purchase |
Single copies of recent CBDI Journals may be purchased |
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