Sun, October 01, 2006 — CIO — Around the CIO water cooler, service-oriented architecture, or SOA, still has all the buzz. The idea of creating reusable service components and deploying them in applications across the enterprise is irresistible. But CIOs are also beginning to realize that SOA is not just a project with a start and an end date. "The goal of an SOA project is not to get the first implementation done and then go back to business as usual," says Richard Thomas, senior VP and CTO at Quintiles Transnational, a pharmaceutical, health-care and biotech research company. "This is a whole new way of doing business." (For more answers to your SOA questions, see The Truth About SOA.)

Members of the CIO Executive Council met recently in Chicago to discuss how to prepare for this new way of doing business. They shared their experiences in the areas of planning, cultural change, organizational structure and metrics.

Start With a Business (Process) Plan
The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) published a May 2006 research brief outlining ways that states can take advantage of SOA. A key NASCIO recommendation is not to rush into building an SOA without a transition plan and a defined business case. Drew Mashburn, chief enterprise architect for the state of Arkansas, contributed to the NASCIO research brief and currently is setting a strategic direction for SOA in his state. Right now, there are approximately 130 state agencies, boards and commissions in Arkansas, many with their own custom-built or purchased applications. "Moving to SOA will definitely be a huge cultural shift," says Mashburn. "It's critical to have strong support from agency leadership, the governor and the state legislature."

To gain that support, Arkansas Executive CIO Doug Elkins and his workgroup are in the early phases of establishing a strategic plan that will identify common business processes across agencies, identify potential areas for interoperability and application reuse, and specify cost savings and other efficiencies. The plan will articulate the two most important benefits that SOA is expected to bring: cost savings and increased collaboration between agencies.