Service Oriented Architecture Field Guide for Executives

8.2. SOA MATURITY MODELS AT A GLANCE

The vast majority of SOA maturity models borrow concepts and even terminology from the battle-tested Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and its successor, the CMMI, both developed by SEI. SEI's maturity models have been used for years to evaluate and measure software maturity and integration processes according to a tiered set of maturity levels.

SOA maturity models tend to borrow liberally from SEI's CMM and CMMI models.^[] They borrow the concept of tiered maturity levels and will even frequently borrow the terminology and progression levels. The difference is that SEI's maturity models are intended to gauge the maturity of an organization's processes. SOA maturity models typically attempt to gauge the maturity of architecture (although the best models measure both).

An extensive list of SOA maturity models could be compiled based on a few good Google™ queries. Many of these models either are company specific or have been espoused by various SOA experts in the form of blog and/or forum posts. There are, however, three models that have been formally defined and repeatedly applied to yield successful SOA results for enterprise organizations:

1. Web Services Maturity Model by CBDI Forum

2. Service Integration Maturity Model (SIMM) by IBM

3. Service Oriented Architecture Maturity Model (SOA MM) by Progress-Sonic Software and a consortium of other vendors

We will start by introducing each model and highlighting its essential structure and core concepts. Later ...