Service-Oriented Architecture Governance for the Services Driven Enterprise

7.5. PURPOSE OF THE SOA GOVERNANCE ORGANIZATION

Why do you need an SOA governance organization? What purpose does it serve? These questions are central to establishing appropriate and right-sized SOA governance organizational models. Governance organizations are established for a variety of reasons, but for an SOA governance model, they play crucial roles.

• Alignment. SOA governance boards provide a mechanism to ensure alignment of business and IT, as well as internal IT alignment to SOA goals and decisions. Alignment is accomplished by creating boards comprised of business and IT leaders for example, or by establishing other cross-functional teams to make sure every stakeholder has a voice and a seat at the table.

• Stakeholder Representation. SOA governance boards provide key stakeholder involvement in those critical SOA governance decisions that impact multiple stakeholders. This is one of the most fundamental reasons for a governance organizational construct—to obtain stakeholder input and maintain their involvement in all decisions related to a particular SOA governance concern.

• Manual Policy Enforcement. Governance boards play a role in the manual enforcement of policies that cannot be automated or should be enforced by boards.

• Exception Management. Governance boards play a critical role in managing exceptions to governance policies. Exception management must be explicitly defined in the SOA governance model. This means anticipating possible exceptions, and having alternative ...