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success. Separate the process of governing SOA from the supporting
technology and tools. Do not buy any SOA technology or tools and ex-
pect to solve your SOA governance needs. This simply is not possible.
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Govern the ‘‘right’’ things. SOA governance means establishing roles
and responsibilities for many things, such as funding and budgeting,
services ownership and portfolio management, and software develop-
ment lifecycle governance. However, as you begin to establish SOA
governance, focus on two or three critical areas that you must get control
of first. Some areas to consider first include EA processes, service design
standards, service interoperability standards, and establishing clear ac-
countability for various types of services. Focus on areas where you are
weak and need to assert SOA governance and policy enforcement.
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Expect changes to your current governance processes. SOA governance
impacts your current business and IT governance processes, as well as
your current enterprise architecture processes. In our experience, imple-
menting SOA governance properly almost always involves slight to
major organizational changes. You can implement SOA governance
in phases to more gradually adjust to the governance demands of SOA.
However, get your processes, organizational model, and policy enforce-
ment model right first, then consider implementing SOA governance
tools.
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Do not mistake governance with implementing governance boards.
This is the first and most common mistake we see in the field—
mistaking the implementation of governance boards for effective gover-
nance. While some boards are going to be necessary to implement your
SOA governance model, the boards are just one of many governance
mechanisms you have available in your SOA governance toolkit. But, if
you begin with boards first, before you know what you are trying to
govern, you will waste time and end up starting over. Implement boards
for the right reasons, but only after you have a clear understanding of
why you need them. Boards do not equal governance.
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Do not go ‘‘overboard’’ with boards. Boards and committees are per-
fectly appropriate governance mechanisms, but they are not the only
ones. Do not implement too many additional boards, whether they are
standing, virtual, or event-triggered. Attendance on boards requires a
time commitment, and too many boards, virtual or otherwise, will
chew up a lot of preparation and participation time.
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Any governance will feel like over-governance initially. When you first
implement SOA governance, it may feel like it is heavy-handed to your
organization. It may feel as if the SOA police are here to stay. This
feeling is a natural result of transitioning from lack of governance or
informal governance to explicit, policy-driven governance. When you
32 THE SOA GOVERNANCE IMPERATIVE