7/31/2019 Benifts Challenges Risk of SOA
1/2
SOA Benefits
Gartner advises Service-Oriented Development of Applications
(SODA) is estimatedto reduce total IT expenses over the long term
by as much as 20% compared to tr
aditional development methods and the savings becomes
exponential over time as library of business services expands and
greater degree of reuse is achieved. However, looking only at the
cost savings misses opportunities for the dramatic business process
improvement SOA can deliver.
According to a recent InfoWorld research report companies that
have implementedSOA have experienced many of the following
benefits:
Technology PerspectiveMore flexible architectureIntegration of
existing applicationsImproved data integrationSupports business
process managementFacilitates enterprise portal initiativesSpeeds
custom application development
Business PerspectiveMore effective integration with business
partnersSupport customer service initiativesEnable employee self
service
Streamline the supply chainMore effective use of external
service providersFacilitate global sourcing
However, many companies are struggling to achieve positive
return on investmentand some report outright failure.
SOA Challenges
This dichotomy of benefits realized is not uncommon for new
technology adoption.SOA is evolving with the continuing maturation
of standards, new software offer
ings and software vendor merger and acquisitions. The technology
risk of SOA isparticularly challenging due to the following
factors:
Early adoption and evolution of supporting
technologyOrganization change in necessary since SOA crosses system
boundariesThe architecture is enterprise in scope encompassing
dispersed and heterogeneous
systemsThe infrastructure is distributed requiring high
availability and scalabilityThe project life cycle methodology
requires changes due to complex system dependencies, SOA specific
design patterns, and the change impact to the infrastructure and
usersProgram management is often complex due the project scope,
interdependencies and
new technology risksQuality Assurance is difficult since
services are distributed, have many interfaces, require new testing
environments, and message based testing tools
New competencies must be developed spanning project management,
analysis and design, development and operations.
SOA Risk Mitigation
Given major challenges, consider taking the following steps to
mitigate the risks associated with transitioning to SOA:
Develop a formal SOA Program Charter with strong executive
sponsorship, objectives in business terms and a target Return on
Investment (ROI)
7/31/2019 Benifts Challenges Risk of SOA
2/2
Establish a SOA Competency Center staffed with a cross-function
technology teamExamine the current architectures and methodology in
use and adjust for SOA - an
agile OOA/OOD approach with specific SOA deliverables and
patternsEstablish a repository and governance policies for reusable
artifices such as interface specifications (design deliverables),
schemas and interface definitions(WSDL)Develop SOA reference
architecture based on design patterns, tool usage and best
practices that defines the SOA logical and physical
architectureEstablish a training plan for staff competencyAcquire
message based testing tools and develop SOA Quality Assurance
policies and proceduresInvolve operations support early and deploy
monitoring and management tools forthe SOA infrastructureDevelop a
SOA strategy and roadmap based on business value, risk, business
process effectiveness, and IT assets to be leveragedTransition to
SOA iteratively adding services based on business value and utility
of function building the services library over time
