| Despite sound theory, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) appears to be failing in delivering on its brilliant promises. Over the last few years, a vast amount of good-faith efforts by many organizations towards SOA adoption have withered in frustration. Researchers and practitioners cannot pinpoint the reason(s) with certainty. Some point to its inherent complexity while others point to the widespread misunderstanding and confusion this over-used buzzword has acquired in the industry. One thing everyone agrees is that SOA adoption is non-trivial. The magnitude of change required to transition from traditional silo-based application design to service-orientation can be overwhelming for any organization. This architectural paradigm-shift encapsulates more than just new technologies; it demands a different mindset. The fundamental service design principles, however, remain applicable throughout. And this is where the others have missed the heart of the problem. The SOA adoption maturity is commonly measured at a high-level, involving elements like infrastructure, tools and technologies adoption, but misses to consider the low-level service design principles. This study offers a new focused maturity-measure that is capable of assessing the essence of SOA design paradigm at its roots. The proposed Service Architecture Maturity (SAM) not only provides a more accurate measure of SOA adoption, but can also hone in on the adoption efforts by focusing attention to the essentials. SAM can help organizations currently stalling on the path of SOA adoption in recognizing their misplaced focus, correcting mistakes, and in achieving the promised benefits from SOA adoption. |
