Service-Oriented Architecture Governance for the Services Driven Enterprise

7.7. OTHER SOA GOVERNANCE BOARD CONSIDERATIONS

When developing a governance organizational design, you must consider other factors that are unique to your organization. How does your organization's politics affect the ability to implement appropriate SOA governance? Are there internal business champions that will better support your governance model than others?

Political Alignment Model As you establish your enterprise SOA governance organizational model, you should take into consideration the political landscape and fluidity of the power base. Reflecting on the IT structural accordion, consider who the political winners and losers are as your IT organization fluctuates between being centralized and/or distributed. The political alignment model is an important exercise to help ensure that your enterprise SOA governance organization is aligned to and can succeed given the political, social, and power structures of your enterprise.

Naming Boards and Aligning to Culture When naming governance boards, use creativity and common sense. Do not use a name that has baggage or that will make organizations suspicious. Use words like "collaboration board" or "council" or "working group". These are more benign than names like "SOA policy board" or "governance review board."

Charters Defining charters should be a simple exercise and you must not belabor this. If you feel you must define formal charters, make them short, simple, and concise. Publicize them and then move on. There are many other ...