SOA governance involves decision making processes to ensure effective use of IT resources and alignment with business goals. There are three main types of governance: IT governance focuses on IT resource use; EA governance ensures alignment with architecture guidance; and SOA governance specifically focuses on a service lifecycle, metadata, and composite applications. A scenario demonstrates how lack of SOA governance can lead to quality issues as service use increases without controls. Key aspects that need governance include architecture, technology, information, financials, portfolios, and people skills. Successful SOA governance involves defining goals and policies, metrics, governance mechanisms, analysis and improvement processes, and periodic refinement.

1. SOA Governance

2. Governance Defined
• Governance is about decision making
• Governance defines the chains of responsibility, authority,
and communication, as well as the measurement and control
mechanisms to enable people to carry out their roles and
responsibilities.
• There are a number of governance categories, for example:
– Information Technology (IT) Governance
– Enterprise Architecture (EA) Governance
– SOA Governance

3. Governance Types Defined
• IT Governance
– The processes that ensure the effective and efficient use
of IT in enabling an organization to achieve its goals[1]
• EA Governance
– A mechanism to ensure projects apply prescriptive
guidance provided by the EA process
– The process of making decisions regarding the adoption
of EA content
• SOA Governance Extends IT Governance
– Specifically focused on an organization’s SOA:
• Service Lifecycle
• Metadata
• Composite applications

5. A scenario on the importance of SOA
governance - Step 1
Accounting department
App. 1
App. 2
Currency conversion service
1. Provide a
currency service
that fills a specific
line of business
(LOB)
* Scenario from Introduction to SOA Governance, Bobby Woolf.
* Scenario from Introduction to SOA Governance, Bobby Woolf.

6. A scenario on the importance of SOA
governance - Step 2
Accounting department
Sales
App. 1
App. 2
Purchasing
Order
fulfillment
Currency conversion service
1. Provide a
currency service
that fills a specific
line of business
(LOB)
Legal
2. Other
LOBs
start using
the service

7. A scenario on the importance of SOA
governance - Step 3
Accounting department
Sales
App. 1
App. 2
Purchasing
Order
fulfillment
Currency conversion service
1. Provide a
currency service
that fills a specific
line of business
(LOB)
Legal
2. Other
LOBs
start using
the service
3. LOBs
increase use
of services /
quality suffers

8. A scenario on the importance of SOA
governance - Step 3
Accounting department
Sales
x
Order
fulfillme
nt
1. Provide a
currency service
that fills a specific
line of business
(LOB)
App. 1
x
x
App. 2
Legal
x
Purchasing
x
x
Currency conversion service
2. Other
LOBs
start using
the service
3. LOBs
increase use
of services /
quality suffers
8

9. A scenario on the importance of SOA
governance - Step 4
Accounting department
Sales
App. 1
App. 2
Purchasing
Order
fulfillment
Currency conversion service
1. Provide a
currency service
that fills a specific
line of business
(LOB)
Legal
2. Other
LOBs
start using
the service
3. LOBs
increase use
of services /
quality suffers
4. Service
is fixed at
provider’s
expense

10. A scenario on the importance of SOA
governance - Step 5
Accounting department
Sales
x
Order
fulfillment
App. 1
x
x
App. 2
Legal
x
Purchasing
x
x
Currency conversion service
1. Provide a
currency service
that fills a specific
line of business
(LOB)
2. Other
LOBs
start using
the service
3. LOBs
increase use
of services /
quality suffers
4. Service
is fixed at
provider’s
expense
5. Fix works
temporarily
but problem
reappears

11. A scenario on the importance of SOA
governance - Step 6
Accounting department
Sales
x
Order
fulfillment
App. 1
x x
App. 2
Legal
x
Purchasing
x
x
Currency conversion service
1. Provide a
currency service
that fills a specific
line of business
(LOB)
2. Other
LOBs
start using
the service
3. LOBs
increase use
of services /
quality suffers
4. Service
is fixed at
provider’s
expense
5. Fix works
6. Maintenance
temporarily
costs soar /
but problem
provider
reappears
ends service
11

12. The key aspects that need to be
governed in the context of SOA

13. Architecture
As part of SOA journey, consider policies built
around:
• Standards compliance—for example, WS-I Basic
Profile compliance for service interfaces.
• Use of architectural assessments, including
reviews and change processes.
• Adherence to reference architectures

14. Technology Infrastructure
Policies need to be enacted to ensure that
• Consensus is built regarding the migration of
legacy systems and platforms to SOA
technologies.
• SOA platform enhancements coincide with the
project portfolio plan and business service
portfolio plan.
• The design and implementation of shared
foundation / utility services are a part of SOA
infrastructure.

15. Information
• Make data readily discoverable, accessible,
and interoperable
• Realize policy-driven security for data services.
• Enforce data standards in the data services
layer.

16. Financial
• The sharing of hardware and software
infrastructure that is the backbone of an
enterprise-wide SOA.
• The funding of business and technical services
that will be shared across multiple
departments.

17. Portfolios
• Ensure that application lifecycles are
consistent with your SOA strategy and
enterprise architecture—especially with the
SOA standards on which interoperability is
built.
• Ensure that hardware and software agendas
and plans are consistent with your SOA and
enterprise strategy.

18. People
• Developing the skills necessary for
architecting, building, testing, and deploying
services and service-oriented applications.
• Creating incentives to encourage the building
of sharable services and the reuse of existing
services.

19. Six Steps to Successful Governance
with SOA

20. Step 1: Define Goals, Strategy and
Constraints
• Every policy, process, architecture, and
decision should be traceable back to the
business goals.
• It is also important to take into account
applicable constraints, including resources,
organizational readiness, budgeting, legacy
and cultural issues.

21. Step 2: Define Policies and Procedures
• Define standards, policies, and procedures
that address the alignment of finance,
portfolios, projects, and operations.
• Clearly state who has the decision and input
rights in formulating specific governance
policies

22. Step 3: Define Metrics for Success
• Define the success factors and key
performance indicators that will let you know
you have achieved your goals and objectives.
• As you mature on your SOA and EA journey
and receive feedback from the business
customers, your metrics should also mature.

23. Step 4: Put Governance Mechanisms
in Place
• The enactment of governance mechanisms ,
including how to obtain and evaluate metrics.
• Methods to enforce policies and procedures.
• To reward the architects and developers that create
sharable services and the individuals or organizations
that use them

24. Step 5: Analyze and Improve
Processes
• Measure the progress made on the SOA
Roadmap, relaxing overly restrictive policies.
• As you continue to eliminate the highestpriority bottlenecks and hindrances, you can
focus your attention on the next-highestpriority items.

25. Step 6: Refine Your SOA
• Periodically, as your SOA matures, re-evaluate
and refine your SOA strategy, along with your
SOA goals and objectives.

26. WSO2 Service Registry
WSO2 Governance Registry, is an open source tool from WSO2
(Web Services Oxygen) available at www.wso2.com
It has the following components:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Service Registry/Repository
Service directory with descriptive metadata
Service Manager
Service lifecycle management
Service version management
Policy Server
Policy management and enforcement

27. Starting Up Governance Registry

29. Management Console
Open a web browser and navigate to the
Management Console URL:
https://<IP_ADDRESS>:9443/carbon/

31. Register a Service

32. A WSDL List will be displayed showing the uploaded WSDL file
.

33. Examine and Update the Service
Resource
This Service was added automatically, since the WSDL file contained a
service element. It was also automatically versioned (i.e., 1. 0. 0SNAPSHOT).

36. Set Security Parameters

39. Add a Lifecycle to a Service

43. 1. “SOA Governance: Framework and Best Practices”Oracle White Paper , May 2012
www.oracle.com/us/.../oracle-soa-governance-best-practice-066427.pdf
2. “SOA Maturity Model -Guiding and Accelerating SOA Success”
Oracle White Paper, September 2013
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/entarch/oracle-wp-soa
maturity-model-176717.pdf
3. Introduction to SOA Governance, Bobby Woolf, IBM Library, July 2007.
4. http://blog.webagesolutions.com/archives/814

44. *SOA Maturity Model[2]

45. Enterprise Level
• The capability is implemented consistently across the
enterprise i.e. all divisions or business units are applying the
SOA approach.
Cross Division
• The capability is implemented by multiple divisions using a
common approach i.e. the approach is being shared or is
spreading to multiple divisions.
Division Wide
• The capability is implemented consistently across a division or
business unit.
• A division or business unit is led by an executive at the VP
level or higher.

46. Program Level
• A relatively small group of projects (program) share an
implementation of the capability. The program is under a
single management structure below the VP level and
encompasses less than an entire division or business unit.
Project Level
• Individual projects implement the capability as appropriate
for that specific project. There may be informal and
unregulated sharing across projects.
No Implementation
• There is no current implementation anywhere in the
organization of the capability being measured