SOA Governance: Balancing Process and Agility
By now everybody has heard over and over how governance is critical to the success of any SOA Implementation. Companies implementing SOA must provide the proper level of governance required to achieve reuse and flexibility without negatively impacting their team's ability to innovate and be agile.
Evolve governance over time
Even if you do get the right balance of process and agility, don't try to implement it all at once. Like SOA, SOA governance is a journey that never ends. Start small and implement only the steps that are necessary at that time.
For example, if your first implementation has fifteen to twenty services, you may not need to have a robust SOA center of excellence (COE) in place, especially if the team consists of only a hand full of technicians. As the number of services increase and the number of architects and developers grow, grow your governance model accordingly. I have seen where some companies have spent over a year putting all of the proper governance processes in place. That is one year with zero value added to the business. My recommendation is to include SOA governance as a critical piece of your SOA roadmap. At the end of the day we will be judged by the business value that SOA delivers. So make sure that your SOA governance model balances SOA best practices with business agility.
