Models of Governance

Critics studying Service Oriented Architecture governance have in recent years arrived at the conclusion that there has been a major drawback  in the typical approaches that have been made in this area. While every single Service Oriented Architecture governance product does take into account the control and usage of services, a lot of individuals working in this field tend to unintentionally ignore data management issues. Services can be thought of as transactional behavior that fronts data.

While a lot of services may be built as true data services, they are still services and have to be dealt with; they must also deal with data management themselves. Both run time and design time Service Oriented Architecture governance products tend to take in to account service as a conceptual entity while ignoring the concept of data management – particularly the concept of abstraction from the physical database, not to mention the management of changes from orchestrations to abstractions, composites, and physical data.

When taking in to consideration Service Oriented Architecture governance, data must be dealt with and taken in to consideration in an effective manner. Services are quite important, but they tend to deal with information. We must pay attention to all sides of the problem in order to get the job done effectively.

The governance model is an effective combination of joint processes, organizational structure, and relationships that are based on ground rules known as governance principles as well as strategic direction. The approach has been developed based on experiments in large and complex engagements.

Governance Principles

The defining of a customer’s strategic direction is necessary to achieve success in the development of an appropriate Service Oriented Architecture while simultaneously staying focused on the needs of the Business. A firm understanding of both the Business objectives and strategy is needed for both Information Technology and the Business side of the operation.

Governance principles and guidelines are necessary to form the primary basis of any major decision. Such principles are needed to shape the solution area, while also defining the way in which effective collaboration will occur. Thus, governance principles should be well understood by all those working in the executive management level. One of the primary guidelines is the governance approach. The two main approaches are outlined below:

1. Central Governance. This is best for an enterprise. The governance council is represented with members of each tier of the service domain. There are also present subject matter experts who are capable of communicating with the people responsible for implementing key technological solution components. This council will review any additions or deletions to the service list, while also reviewing changes to existing services and authorizing any necessary change implementation.
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2. Distributed Governance. This model works best for distributed teams. Every Business unit will have control over how it is to provide services within its own organization. Thus, a functional service domain approach is necessary in this scenario. Guidelines and standards are provided to different teams by the central committee.

Every principle must be defined with a rationale that expounds upon the principle’s implications and main purposes. The guiding principles are meant to define strict ground rules for the utilization, development, and maintenance of Service Oriented Architecture.

The main principles for architectural design and service definition may be extract from these main guiding principles that are focused on particular themes. Such principles characterize the intrinsic behavior for the type of design to be implemented, while also covering the guiding principles and specific architectural principles of the project.

Through the possession of a complete understanding of Service Oriented Architecture principles, a wise decision can be made regarding the applicability of Service Oriented Architecture to design problems. Such principles drive many characteristics that are necessary for a service’s design. Each of the characteristics may be traced back to one or more Service Oriented Architecture design principles that are meant to provide integrity to the principles and the characteristics alike.

Processes of Governance

Governance processes can be thought of as the processes necessary for strategic Information Technology steering and planning. These might include Information Technology planning, strategy development, portfolio management, architecture management, sourcing, and innovation management.

Within the context of Service Oriented Architecture engagement, the Architecture Management Process should be established at the very beginning of the engagement. The primary goal of the Architecture Management Process is to guarantee that the defined Service Oriented Architecture develops in a consistent and efficient manner.

A standard Architecture Management Process that is readily adoptable within the scheme of client engagements is shown below. This particular process contains four sub processes that are well defined and available as an asset utilizing IBM LOVEM notation. LOVEM, by the way, is short for the “line of visibility engineering methodology.”

First Page: SOA Best Practices