Service-Oriented Architecture Governance for the Services Driven Enterprise

1.8. IT PROCESS FRAMEWORKS: ITIL, COBIT, CMMI, AND OTHERS

Several IT governance frameworks and models have blossomed over the years, particularly to facilitate better governance, process definition, and controls for IT. Major IT governance, process, and architecture frameworks are available for implementation, such as Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT), Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), and The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF). These are all major process definition and standardization efforts for IT best practices, governance and audit/financial controls. These frameworks all substantially overlap, are inconsistent, approach IT from differing perspectives, and require "substantial interpretation before implementation."^[] Furthermore, the United States lags in adoption of these frameworks, which is a paradox because the Unites States leads in technology innovation, and especially in the context of SOA and its related technologies and disciplines.

^[] Charles T. Betz, Architecture and Patterns for IT Services Management, Resource Planning, and Governance: Making Shoes for the Cobbler's Children, Morgan Kaufmann, 2007, p. xxii.

The adoption of ITIL best practices, CMMI certification, and other processes seem to be sub-optimized, lacking overarching governance models to manage these processes. In fact, our experience is that IT governance competencies are wide and varied, with ...