Service Oriented Architecture Field Guide for Executives

Chapter 8. SELECTING AN SOA MATURITY MODEL

As children, we are enamored with the concept of maturity. We look forward to each new phase of life with great anticipation (and corresponding fear on the part of our parents). Children are very interested in proving that they are "big" (a phenomenally relative concept) and are quite interested in gauging this growth. My child is not merely four; he is four and a half! Equally important to children is the dualistic practice of identifying those peers who are not mature or "big." Hence the childhood quip: "Act your age, not your shoe size."

In the business world, gauging the growth or relative maturity of enterprises is sought in the form of formal models. These maturity models are sometimes applied to whole industries or uniquely crafted for use within a given organization. Perhaps the most well-known is the Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI) developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). The strategic utilization of service oriented architecture (SOA) within enterprises and the sheer scale of many SOA initiatives warrant a disciplined and measured approach to adopting SOA. To address this need, several SOA maturity models have emerged. These models are then utilized to gauge the relative maturity of an enterprise's SOA adoption or even to gauge the maturity of a more comprehensive enterprise architecture (EA) strategy. Is it any wonder that some are saying that organizations should now "act their age, not their SOA ...