Service-Oriented Architecture Governance for the Services Driven Enterprise

6.2. SOA STRATEGY AND SOA GOALS

As emphasized earlier, SOA governance must govern according to some guiding compass. That compass is the SOA strategy. Often, an organization begins developing its SOA governance model before an SOA strategy has been developed. SOA governance must have an SOA strategy to provide the direction, strategic alignment, goals, and objectives, and of course the associated roadmaps for services, SOA opportunities, and SOA technology. The SOA goals in the SOA strategy must align to the IT strategy, which in turn must align with and support the organization's business strategy.

Once the SOA goals have been defined in accordance with the SOA strategy, they must be translated into SOA principles and SOA policies. Exhibit 6.1 depicts this translation process from goals to principles and ultimately to a body of SOA policies that will be enforced to implement your SOA governance model.

Figure 6.1. Deriving SOA Governance Goals, Principles, and Policies

The goals/principles/policies translation process is essential to maintaining the alignment and relationship between business, IT and SOA goals, and the principles and policies that will lead to the realization of those goals.