Datasheet

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Overcomplicating the Model—Too Many Boards.Inmanycases,we

see organizations attempting to implement holistic enterprise gover-

nance processes when in fact they need focused SOA governance. There

are many ways in which one may overcomplicate SOA governance: In

one scenario, the organization implements too much governance com-

plexity by implementing too many boards and committees. This heavy

organizational footprint often fails because it requires too much organ-

izational overhead and friction too early in the SOA adoption process,

and normally before most ﬁrms have proven to themselves that SOA

can deliver on its potential. In another scenario, there is a mismatch of

SOA governance processes and policies to the current demands for SOA

governance. For instance, many times we see inexperienced consulting

ﬁrms pushing sophisticated portfolio management models of gover-

nance upon their clients when basic SOA governance gaps have not

been closed yet. Why would you need service portfolio managers for a

complex collection of service portfolios when you have not even deﬁned

basic services design patterns and implementation standards, and do

not have an SOA run-time platform speciﬁed and implemented yet?

You see the challenge. Normally, service portfolio management is a

more mature SOA undertaking, usually unnecessary until the organiza-

tion has enough services to merit a portfolio management approach.

Oversimplify the Governance Model—Lack of Process Coverage. An-

other common mistake is oversimplifying SOA governance by omitting

key processes or by implementing software tools on the assumption that

they provide that process for you. We addressed the software tool issue

above. The lack of governance process coverage derives from the absence

of an overarching perspective and reference model for SOA governance.

This oversimpliﬁcation normally occurs when governance novices at-

tempt to derive an appropriate SOA governance model from the bottom-

up, or from a partial or incomplete frame of reference. For example, if

my experience is metadata repositories, my governance process will cen-

ter on design-time service governance. If my experience and interest is

EA, my SOA governance processes will emphasize enterprise architec-

ture governance over other processes. In most cases, organizations have

not devised a solid Services Development Lifecycle for the robust and re-

peatable development, testing, and implementation of services in the

context of a SOA strategy. The solution for this mistake is leveraging an

SOA governance reference model to help identify and map key gover-

nance processes, identify gaps, and then implement robust governance

processes supported by appropriate tools and technologies.

Reduce Governance to an Event or Milestone versus a Sustaining

Process. A very common, almost universal, SOA governance mistake is

Common SOA Governance Mistakes 35