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Software AG surveyed global customer base to identify emerging best
practices for SOA governance
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Users expressed nearly universal commitment to SOA with widespread
satisfaction reported as well
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Report concludes that better governance is needed to institutionalize
and automate SOA lifecycle processes and best practices
A new global survey issued today suggests that enterprise adoption of
service-oriented architecture (SOA) has ‘crossed
the chasm'.Users also identified SOA
governance as a key component of sustainable implementations with
holistic, lifecycle approaches viewed as a core requirement.However,
the overall maturity of their adoption was regarded as moderate with the
state of their governance practices considered lacking.The Best
Practices for SOA Governance User Survey (Summer 2008) was
produced by Software AG, a global leader in business infrastructure
software, and can be found at www.SoftwareAG.com/soagovernancesurvey.
According to the survey, more than 90% of respondents indicated some
level of SOA planning underway within their organizations. More than
half of all enterprises
have already implemented successful SOA-based projects and/or an
enterprise-wide SOA. Respondents also reported considerable satisfaction
with their progress to date. Less than 10% were explicitly unhappy with
their results so far as satisfaction with SOA beat dissatisfaction by a
four-to-one margin. Among those reporting having an enterprise-wide SOA
in place, approximately two-thirds said that they were satisfied with
their results to date with the remainder reporting that it was "too
early to tell".
The survey also found that users overwhelmingly view governance as being
a key component to creating sustainable SOA implementations at the
enterprise level with over 90% reporting that it was either critically
(54%) or moderately important. Despite this importance, nearly
two-thirds rate their own SOA governance practices as either "non-existent"
or "insufficient".
Among the best practices identified by the survey was the importance of
having a SOA Competency Center or Center
of Excellence in place to build cross-organizational support for
these initiatives. Somewhat surprisingly, the survey also found that
senior IT management appeared to be missing from these discussions with
less than 20% enjoying active support from the Office of the CIO as just
one example.
"With organizations just beginning to embrace
SOA governance, a significant void exists in terms of well-established
and widely disseminated best practices.