There is now considerable experience in deploying solutions based on a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Most, but not all, of those experiences have been positive ones. Regardless of the perceived success many lessons have been learned that have refined our expectations of SOA and increased the prospects of success for later adopters. This Report re-examines many of the principles and assumptions surrounding SOA to give an up-to-date appraisal of issues around the business, the platform, governance, and design. It includes recent survey results that show how maturity has progressed and also indicates the lack of balance between domains that is still encountered too often. A set of case studies reveals how individual organisations have deployed SOA to meet specific requirements, and describes the lessons they have learned from which others can benefit.
 

Section 1: Management Summary

1.1 Management Summary

Section 2: Business Issues

2.1 Report Objectives and Structure

2.2 The Role of SOA in Business/IT Alignment

2.3 Justifying Investments in SOA

2.4 SOA in Different Economic Climates

Section 3: A Checkpoint on SOA Adoption

3.1 The Joint Butler Group/Griffiths Waite SOA Maturity Survey

3.2 SOA Maturity Survey Results

Section 4: The Practicalities of SOA Governance

4.1 Overview of SOA Governance

4.2 The Need for a Specific SOA Governance Initiative

4.3 The Problems of Delaying SOA Governance Implementation

4.4 Governance Across the SOA Lifecycle

4.5 Organisational Aspects of SOA Governance

4.6 Phased Deployment Permits an Early Start

Section 5: The Evolving SOA Platform

5.1 Evolving Expectations of the SOA Platform

5.2 Alternative Patterns for Placing SOA Logic

5.3 The Ascendency of Open Source

5.4 The Role of Hosting in SOA Deployments

5.5 The Implications of Software-as-a-Service and Cloud Computing

Section 6: Evolving Design Principles

6.1 The Relationship Between SOA and Complementary Initiatives

6.2 Formalising Service Design

6.3 Performance Issues, Solutions, and Workarounds

6.4 Application Development Perspectives of SOA

6.5 Packaged Applications and SOA

Section 7: Case Studies

7.1 Introduction to the Case Studies

7.2 Small Team SOA Deployment at Tewkesbury Borough Council

7.3 Small Team Deployment of SOA at Concur

7.4 SOA in Support of Spatial Information at New South Wales Department of Lands

7.5 Using SOA to Become a Preferred Partner - EBS Building Society

7.6 Providing SOA Implementation Assistance - Inter Access

7.7 SOA in Support of M&A Activity at a Large European Telecommunications Provider

7.8 Retrospective SOA Governance Implementation at Vital Forsikring ASA

7.9 Use of SOA at Municipality of Rotterdam

Section 8: Glossary