Business Agility with Composite Services

The promise of service architecture is the ability of business users to redefine new processes from existing ones, reusing appropriate components, adding new capabilities while removing inefficiency. ...

... "Now, with SOA, individual business processes can be discovered, modified and recombined dynamically without having to involve the IT department. Business users can create new composite services ... " ...

Via Financial Times: Innovate with SOA

Cloud Computing Forecast

Cloud computing strategy is debated, with startups likely to leverage the foundation and existing enterprises easing their way along the adoption curve. Will the need for increased operational efficiency in the near term speed up migration to the cloud? Stay tuned. ...

... "In one way it will look much like the old software world. There will be a few big platforms, akin to today’s operating systems, and most applications will be written to one of these platforms. " ...

Via InformationWeek: Cloud Computing

Loosely Coupled Business through SOA

If you're building a new business and focusing on your primary differentiators in the market, coupling-in non-core functions to your core business processes could be a valuable and efficient business model. ...

... "However, SOA is more than a single IT project or even a series of implementations. Rather, SOA represents a long-term change in thinking and management of all aspects of the enterprise. " ...

Via ENTERPRISE OPEN SOURCE: Where Are We With SOA?

SOA Awareness High Among Asia Project Managers

Surveys confirm awareness and comfort with SOA technology and an uptick in SOA project investments. ...

... "Dr. Patrick Chan, Research Director of Asia-Pacific Emerging Technologies Research at IDC, explained that most IT project managers have positive attitudes and strong understanding of SOA with mid-sized and larger corporates with more budget power. " ...

Via SDA Asia: SOA Market Pulse

ROI of SOA

SOA hype is high. Is there an ROI? Certainly, reusability, possibly speed - if robust set of architecture services exist. ...

... "And that is to define and prove ROI for SOA on a project basis, not on the holistic and longterm IT-strategy basis. " ...

Via ZDNet: SOA ROI For Real?

Make or Buy: The Jury is Out

There's a good article in InfoWorld about the age old IT dilemma of "build vs. buy." The consensus seems to be to buy when automating commodity processes and build when dealing with core differentiating processes (a la Wal-Mart). SOA seems to have made the "build" option more palatable.

The worst of both worlds is to buy a huge system and then heavily modify it to match your old systems and processes.

Another up and coming choice for many organizations is hosted solutions. Many companies are doing "all of the above," with a mix of packaged products, in-house offerings, and hosted solutions for a best-of-breed mix.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Everybody knows that the more standardized you are and the more you buy off-the-shelf, the more cost effective it will be for both implementation and ongoing maintenance,” says Mark Lutchen, former global CIO of PricewaterhouseCoopers, now head of the firm’s IT Effectiveness practice.

On the other hand, executives such as Bob Laird, IT chief architect at MCI (now part of Verizon Business), sing the familiar refrain of in-house
development: “Where we tend to invest is where we can get incremental revenue … or competitive advantage,” he says.

As with many modern enterprises, Laird and team have recast their in-house development efforts within an SOA, enabling them to reuse rather than build from scratch. “Part of the decision is to look at your legacy applications and analyze what legacy you have that still has business value,” he says.

For more, read on...

To build or to buy IT applications? InfoWorld Analysis 2006-02-13 By Polly S. Traylor

Microsoft Vista Project Management: Scope or Schedule Management ...

Microsoft struggles with Vista project management. Working the triple constraint, Microsoft adjusts scope and schedule - and, likely, costs are increasing as well. Article explores options for improvement, including ruthless schedule management, better requirements management, etc. ...

... "With Vista, Microsoft originally hoped to make major changes to the underlying code, adding in a new file storage mechanism called WinFS, along with all-new graphics and communications methods. It eventually had to pull out WinFS entirely and scale back several other architectural changes in order to make the project more manageable. " ...

Microsoft Vista Project Management: Scope or Schedule Management : Clouds over Redmond: Via ZDNet Australia ...

SOA Service Oriented Architecture Governance: Software Enables ...

Flashline releases software enhancements that support full-cycle service oriented architecture SOA governance, by ensuring that policies are enforced across the lifecycle and that services align with the architecture. ...

... "Flashline, the leading registry/repository provider for SOA and software reuse, announced the immediate availability of Flashline for SOA 5.1, featuring new enhancements for governance and lifecycle management. Highlights of the new release include an enhanced policy management module, SOA starter patterns and an integration framework for enterprise systems management tools. " ...

SOA Service Oriented Architecture Governance: Software Enables: Via Flashline: Flashline Enhances Registry and Repository for SOA Governance and Lifecycle Management

IT SOA Strategy: Form Architecture Group ...

What is the role of an IT architecture group with regards to SOA? Ajit Sagar shares his experiences with developing the architecture organization. He recommends a more formalized architecture function to support SOA standards and performance agreements. I like his ideas regarding a more active and involved architecture team that interacts regularly in projects, in addition to traditional roles, such as publishing reference architecture documents. Good advice ....

... "One of the main responsibilities is also to align with the business to define the IT strategy for SOA and to provide an implementation roadmap, including the migration of existing applications towards a service-oriented paradigm. " ...

IT SOA Strategy: Form Architecture Group: Via Sys-Con Italia: Architecting for SOA ...

SOA Governance: IT Process Implications ...

Governing a service oriented architecture (SOA) touches on multiple aspects of information technology governance: the enterprise architecture, the software development lifecycle, service level operations, project portfolio management. Brent Carlson and Eric Marks thoroughly examine the valuable nuggets of SOA governance best practices and the implications on the processes of IT. ...

... "Because of the loosely coupled nature of SOA, SOA governance is a new discipline that has implications for existing corporate and IT institutions as well as for new organizational structures and processes (and the politics associated with those structures and processes). " ...

SOA Governance: IT Process Implications: Via SYS-CON AUSTRALIA: SOA Governance Best Practices - Architectural, Organizational, and SDLC Implications ...

ServiceOriented Architecture SOA Governance: Market Consolidation ...

Mercury acquires Systinet to extend its reach into the service oriented architecture SOA market. It further expands the footprint of their integrated business technology suite. This market space is ripe for consolidation as major information architectures transition to the services model. ...

... "Mercury Interactive Corporation, the global leader in business technology optimization (BTO) software, announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Systinet Corporation, a privately held company, for $105.0 million in cash. Systinet is a leading provider of service-oriented architecture (SOA) governance and lifecycle management software and services. Customers use Systinet technology to manage SOA business services and to build secure and reliable Web services. Systinet technology, when combined with Mercury BTO Enterprise offerings, will help enable customers to take a lifecycle approach to optimizing the quality, performance and availability of SOA business services.

Systinet SOA products provide a system of record and a set of governance and lifecycle capabilities that help provide the visibility, control, quality and integrity critical to SOA success. Systinet products deliver capabilities for publishing and discovering business services; creating, managing and enforcing policies; and managing the full lifecycle of business services and other SOA assets. " ...

ServiceOriented Architecture SOA Governance: Market Consolidation: Via Mercury: Mercury to Acquire Systinet to Capitalize on High-Growth SOA Market ...

SOA ServiceOriented Architecture Predicted to Increase in New Year ...

IT governance models must evolve to make the best decisions on a service oriented enterprise architecture. Sean Rhody makes some predictions for the new year, including the acceleration of service oriented architectures, SOA. ...

... "Service orientation offers the possibility of real advances in IT - advances that can be coupled strongly to business value. It also requires organizational change and modification to IT governance that many folks have yet to really tackle. It's a lot easier to change the software than it is to change the people who run the software " ...

SOA ServiceOriented Architecture Predicted to Increase in New Year: Via SysCon: Holiday Wishes ...

ServiceOriented Architecture SOA: Build Out or Over?

In the evolution to a service oriented architecture, most enterprises are likely to build out from their existing base. Should they build over and rearchitect for SOA? David Linthicum, respected authority in the technology space (remember Mercator), provides his insights on the service oriented architecture (SOA) space. ...

ServiceOriented Architecture SOA: Build Out or Over?: Via InfoWorld: So, are you going SOA New School, or SOA Old School? ...

... "However, I can say that the new school products have more applicability for the SOA space since they are specifically designed for that purpose. The old school products just seem like quick reinventions ... " ...

UDDI for SOA: Govern Service Oriented Architecture ...

Flashline offers interesting solution for management of UDDI for SOA to enable more orchestrated process of governance for service architecture. ...

UDDI for SOA: Govern Service Oriented Architecture: Via Flashline: Flashline Offers $50,000 Credit to UDDI Registry Customers

... "Flashline has extensive experience deploying strategic enterprise SOA with Fortune 500 companies and Federal agencies who have documented annual returns in the millions of dollars. Where UDDI is in use, the majority use it for Web service discovery at runtime. They have found that UDDI presents limitations for enterprise SOA, however, because it provides no support for managing or governing services during three key stages of SOA implementation: plan-time, design-time and deploy-time. In addition, standalone programs centered on UDDI registries force enterprises to manage Web services apart from the other software assets and architecture necessary for SOA success. This isolation inhibits the ability to perform impact analysis and increases complexity as Web services and supporting artifacts proliferate. " ...

ITIL Heals Information Technology ...

It is believed that a foundation of ITIL will ease the transition to service oriented architectures, SOA, enabling IT organization to be flexible and agile in response to marketplace competition. David Stodder and Sue Bushell explore the ITIL best practice framework that is key to the success of information technology as the industry shifts to a service orientation in architectures and in delivery. ...

ITIL Heals Information Technology: Via Intelligent Enterprise Magazine: IT: Heal Thyself

... "To reduce error and avoid reinventing the wheel, organizations are working with best practices such as those outlined in IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT) and Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). Judging by its momentum, ITIL is the most important framework. " ...

SOA Implementation: Governance and Project Management: Seminars

Seminar series by Cape Clear addresses project management and governance best practices for implementation of a service oriented architecture, or SOA. ...

SOA Implementation: Governance and Project Management: Seminar: Via Cape Clear Software: Cape Clear Provides Practical Guidance for SOA Implementations with SOA Architects' Forum Seminar Series ...

... "Cape Clear Software announced details for the company's latest series of SOA Architects' Forums - free, interactive workshops that provide practical guidance for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) implementations. Cape Clear's interactive workshops are designed to simplify the often complex and confusing process of moving SOA initiatives from hype to reality. Seminars will cover: Organizational, governance, and project management best practices; Identifying and prioritizing projects, and determining ROI for implementation success; ... " ...

Cape Clear Software provides the fastest, simplest, and most proven way to implement a Service Oriented Architecture, delivering enterprise SOA projects in 20% of the time and cost of alternative approaches. With over 200 customers, Cape Clear is the proven leader in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) software. Cape Clear's True ESB software is based completely on open standards, works with your existing infrastructure, and enables business users to flexibly align their business processes with their infrastructure. Founded in 1999, Cape Clear Software is a privately held firm with headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts and offices in Atlanta, San Mateo, Dublin, and London.

IT Governance: New Initiatives Executive Alignment

IT Governance still requires a degree of executive alignment before significant investments can be approved. Any delay can seem bureaucratic, however it is necessary to build an executive support network, or coalition, to align behind a major multi-year investment program. Lawrence M Walsh explores the challenges vendors face when they must align their sales cycles with public sector governance processes.

IT Governance: New Initiatives Executive Alignment: Via CRN: VARs Must Play Politics To Expedite Government Sales

... "Even with centralized IT governance, such as Takai's in Michigan, in which the CIO has budget and oversight of all IT deployments, it still takes time to build consensus for new initiatives. " ...

PMThink references on IT governance:

• CA Niku ITGovernance Growth Engine?


• Centralized IT Governance: Enterprise Architecture Modeling Tool


• COBIT Course: IT Governance Controls Framework ...


• Discussion on Distributed IT: Governance ...


• Does Architecture Visualization Enable ITGovernance?


• EPM Software IT Governance Market Growth ...


• From CIO Magazine - A Cry for Full-Cyle Governance


• Governance Alignment: Project Portfolio Management (PPM)


• Governance Software: OMB A123 Compliance


• IT Governance Common Themes ...


• IT Governance Integrated Application Development: Software Solution


• IT Governance Repeatable Processes ...


• IT Governance Road Map ...


• IT Governance Role: Architecture


• IT Governance Solution: Maturity Acceleration ...


• IT Governance Transformation: New York State CIO


• IT Governance: Application Services Flexibility or Efficiency?


• IT Governance: Board-Level Visibility ...


• IT Governance: Board of Directors ...


• IT Governance: SAP ESA Strategy


• IT Governance: Services Transformation ...


• IT Governance: Service Portfolio Management Applications ...


• IT Governance: Shift Investment to Business Value Opportunities


• IT Governance: The Board ...


• IT Governance: Value and Cost Measurement ...


• IT Governance; Where the Value of IT is Hiding


• IT Savvy: Governance Best Practices: Peter Weill


• Leadership and IT Governance


• Microsoft IT Governance Woes ...


• Process Governance Tool Upcoming ...


• Process Models: ITIL ITGovernance ...


• Project Management and Governance


• ProjectManagement ITGovernanceSoftware Linux Capable ...


• SOA and IT Governance ...


• SOA Governance: Best Practice Strategies Webinar ...


• SOA IT Governance


• Software Supports ITGovernance CorporateGovernance

SOA Governance: Best Practice Strategies Webinar ...

SOA Governance: Best Practice Strategies Webinar: Via Service Integrity: Real-Time Business Intelligence for Service Oriented Enterprises

Upcoming webinar explores best practices and strategy for SOA Service Oriented Architecture in leading enterprises ...

... "Service Integrity, a provider of real-time Business Intelligence (BI) software for Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA), and Systinet, the leader in SOA governance and lifecycle management, announced they will co-host a webinar, Creating a Policy and Practice Blueprint for SOA, on Tuesday, October 4. The online event will present best practices and strategies for building today's service-oriented enterprises, including the critical steps for establishing a system of record for SOA policies and how to secure real-time visibility into the implementation of best practices. " ...

Systinet is a leading software provider of the foundation for SOA governance and business service lifecycle management. Founded in 2000, Systinet's award-winning, proven, and standards-based products enable IT organizations to rapidly leverage existing technology investments, provide interoperability between heterogeneous systems, and better align business processes with IT. Customers receive the benefits of a simpler, faster, standards-based way to dramatically improve IT responsiveness and technology asset reuse, while maximizing the ROI for SOA. Systinet's customer base of over 150 Global 2000 clients includes Amazon.com, BMC Software, Interwoven, JP Morgan, Motorola, Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), and SAIC. Headquartered in Burlington, Mass., Systinet is a privately held company with over 100 employees.

Service Integrity provides patent-pending, real-time Business Intelligence (BI) software for Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA). As a consequence of implementing SOA, more business critical data is “in-flight” than ever, and it’s moving at the speed of light. Service Integrity’s SIFT™ software uniquely resolves the challenge of harnessing and leveraging Information-in-Motion™ to achieve optimal business execution. With SIFT, companies like Pfizer, Novell, and Fidelity National Financial achieve the insight, agility, and predictability they need to gain increased regulatory compliance, continuous risk management, and seamless operational performance. Service Integrity is headquartered in Boston, MA.

Project Metrics: Process Improvement ...

Project Metrics: Process Improvement: Via Builder AU: Manage: Project Management: Use project metrics to improve processes and declare success ...

Tom Mochal, TechRepublic, discusses the tracking of project management process metrics ...

... "Examples of these types of metrics include the time required to complete an iterative development cycle, the effectiveness of team meetings, the percentage of deliverable reviews that are successful the first time, and how closely you are hitting interim milestones. Gathering these types of metrics is applicable only on medium and large projects because there is enough time to capture the data, analyse the results, and make appropriate changes." ...

IT Strategy: Motorola Exec Podcast ...

IT Strategy: Motorola Exec Podcast: Via SATN.org: Podcast with Motorola executive ...

Dan Bricklin posts podcast by Motorola exec ...

... "Toby Redshaw of Motorola. ... Toby has a strong Enterprise IT background (he was a senior IT person at Federal Express before Motorola and is corporate vice president, Corporate IT Strategy, Architecture and e-Business at Motorola) and talks about cell phones from that perspective. He also talks a lot about building systems and their experience with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). " ...

Dan Bricklin is also best known as the co-creator of VisiCalc. He is currently founder and CTO of Trellix Corporation.

IT Governance: Board of Directors ...

IT Governance: Board of Directors: Via Yogish Pai's Blog: SOA - Stakeholders

How far down into the approval chain should the IT board of directors go? Strategy, budget, programs? projects, conflicts, too? ...

... "IT Board of Directors: Just like every organizations has a Board of Directors, IT needs one too. Typically this function is performed by some key executives or by their representatives. The Board's objective is to set direction, approve initiatives/projects, resolve conflicts, etc. " ...

SOA Implications Worth Understanding ...

Via EDS' Next Big Thing Blog : SOA Implications 3rd in a series

Charlie Bess, EDS Fellow, explores SOA and the things the vendors don't tell you ...

... "Governance - Organizations that adopt service oriented architecture techniques will need to have a more disciplined approach to the promotion to production process. " ...

SOA IT Governance

Via Flashline Community Weblog: SOA needs ITG

... "But is increasing the willingness of developers to fall into line really the most effective strategy for enforcing policies, EA, SOA, or otherwise? Is that governance? " ...

Governance is making the decision on the architecture standards. Execution is about operationalizing the policies through software development. Developers should have an ability to influence the architecture roadmap so that right standards make it to governance. ... a continuous improvement cycle.

SOA and IT Governance ...

Via James Governor's MonkChips: Oracle Siebel: time for users to pull the trigger on SOA governance

Oracle Siebel event, a trigger for SOA governance ...

... "SOA isnt a product. Its about IT Governance, simplifying the business of IT in order to simplify IT for the business. Many successful SOA projects have involved a vendor rationalisation. Its all about setting standards at the center. " ...