Applied SOA: Service-Oriented Architecture and Design Strategies

CHAPTER 12

SOA Governance

With the widespread adoption of SOA, the challenges associated with SOA projects are emerging. SOA governance isn’t optional – it’s imperative. Without it, return on investment will be low and every SOA project out of the pilot phase will be at risk.

– Paolo Malinverno

SOA governance is essential to a successful SOA. Without it, well-intended SOA pilot projects spiral into chaos when they go operational. We have seen it before — an organization spends a lot of money developing services, it declares success when everything works well in the lab, but because they didn’t plan ahead for every aspect of the project for real-time operations, there is constant pain at all levels of the organization when the project goes “live.” In cases like these, where governance is largely ignored, the isolated technology benefits of SOA adoption are outweighed by the hassle of managing chaos. Managers, architects, and developers get burnt out as they make necessary massive “Band-Aid” solutions to real-time deployed systems. There are many people (like us) who have the battle scars from the early days of SOA, and by reading this chapter, you can benefit from the lessons we have learned. This chapter provides an introduction to SOA governance. It defines and describes the SOA governance life cycle, and it provides a practical guide for implementing it in your organization.

Specifically, this chapter covers the following topics:

• Important terminology, principles, and goals ...