SOA Maturity Assessment Guiding the SOA Roadmap. White Paper July 2009

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1 SOA Maturity Assessment Guiding the SOA Roadmap White Paper July 2009

2 SOA Maturity Assessment Guiding the SOA Roadmap Executive overview Service Oriented Architecture has moved beyond the hype. More and more organizations see their SOA initiatives gaining momentum and delivering on their promises. There is a general consensus that greater benefits are within reach but it is not clear to organizations how this can be achieved. There is also a growing awareness (within leading communities) that determining the current position on the SOA migration path and projecting the future state is beneficial to quantifying SOA efforts. The SOA Maturity Assessment Process facilitates the assessment of an organization s current and desired future states of service integration and flexibility. The Assessment described in this white paper gives practical guidance to the use of the model: it is the combination of industry experience, lessons learned and best practices in SOA development in tangible form. TMNS has been engaged by numerous companies within a broad spectrum of industries and in various stages of SOA adoption. Using our model, numerous threats and opportunities were unveiled which were the basis of quantifying the steps needed to achieve greater maturity. The process is not about scoring an organization, it s about providing prioritized recommendations laid down in a SOA Roadmap. Applying this SOA Maturity Model will lead an enterprise towards a more agile, flexible organization; it results in a roadmap showing how to get from the current to the desired situation. The roadmap will show you a step-by-step approach on how to achieve your desired state. TMNS has tailored the assessment based on our experience. This leads to a highly effective process within a short period of time. This approach obviously also leads to financial benefits. Introduction This paper describes the process of applying a SOA Maturity Model; a model that is used as a guide for process improvement. It describes capabilities that capture best practices, dimensions to classify and organize related capabilities, maturity levels to aggregate and rank capabilities per dimension and adoption levels that indicate how widely capabilities are spread within an organization. TMNS - SOA Maturity Model Assessment Page 2

3 SOA Maturity Model TMNS decided to use the Open Group s Service Integration Maturity Model (OSIMM) 1. This model is supplied by the Open Group and is on its way to become the de facto industry-wide model. Figure 1: Open Group's Service Integration Maturity Model The OSIMM framework provides seven dimensions across seven maturity levels. The dimensions represent different views of an organization. The seven dimensions are the Business, Organization, Methods, Application, Architecture, Information and the Infrastructure views. The seven maturity levels are Silo, Integrated, Componentized, Services, Composite Services, Virtualized Services and Dynamically Re-Configurable Services. Each dimension has a set of maturity indicators. The total set of maturity levels for all the dimensions provides a holistic view of the SOA maturity level of the organization. 1 OSIMM: The Open Group Service Integration Maturity Model. See TMNS - SOA Maturity Model Assessment Page 3

4 TMNS has build an exhaustive list of maturity indicators and questionnaires based on maturity models from IBM, Oracle, The Open Group and company experience. Assessment The TMNS application of the Maturity Model to any organization (be it a single project, a line of business or an entire enterprise) always follows a proven sequence. This sequence is modeled in the flow on the right. All assessments start with a defined work-order, authorized by executive management, indicating possible pain points that lead to the need for such an assessment. The pain points stressed by the business side of the organization drive the assessment. After all, Service Oriented Architecture should be driven by the business. Tailoring the assessment framework Each organization has its own characteristics. Hence, the assessment framework will be tailored to each individual organization. The tailoring process is conducted by considering the pain points as put forward by the business side of the organization (focus). The scope of the assessment is determined and agreed upon in order to achieve a positive Return-On-Modeling-Effort (ROME). A dedicated assessment matrix is created, based on the resulting focus and scope. This matrix is a subset of the dimensions, maturity indicators and questions that TMNS has developed over the years. For example, the following figure shows a selection of the 40+ indicators related to the Business dimension: A defined process for business specification of service requirements is present. A formal services management governance process is established. New services will have performance metrics specified. The Business Service Level Agreement (SLA) is measured. A standard approach is available for defining Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) (including SW/HW & future maintenance) of services. The TMNS tailoring process will modify the exhaustive general maturity scan into a focused, effective, easy to execute, cost-friendly assessment. At the end of the day no organization is looking forward to another exhaustive assessment that takes several months. TMNS - SOA Maturity Model Assessment Page 4

5 These resulting indicators are used in the next step: determine the current maturity level. Determine the current level of maturity The assessment matrix is used to conduct interviews with key staff from the organization. This results in an aggregated maturity level for each dimension. In addition, an assessment will be done on the underlying reasons of perceived pain points in relation to the current maturity level. This assessment is particularly important as it is a key input to the next step: determine the target level. Infrastructure Information Architecture Target Maturity Business Organization Methods Applications Current Maturity Determine the target level of maturity Based on the input of key staff, the maturity indicators from the OSIMM and the characteristics of the desired maturity level, an analysis is conducted resulting in a recommendation for a target maturity level for each dimension. A gap analysis identifies strengths and weaknesses with the current practices in use within the domains and puts forward recommendations. Determine gaps and road map The maturity indicators for each dimension involved in the assessment need to show the current and desired maturity level. The gaps between current and target levels will be addressed via the creation of a road map that will identify the steps needed to take the SOA initiative per dimension from current to desired level. Develop final report The findings of the SOA Maturity Assessment will be reported to the organization in document and presentation format. The final report consists of a list of the identified pain points, the assessment matrix used in the assessment, the current and future maturity level, a list of actions to alleviate the pain points and a high level road map. Timeline and Effort The length of an assessment will vary depending on the number of perceived pain points, the size of the organization, the current maturity level, the scope and the level of detail required for the road map. A typical assessment can be completed within two weeks, requiring only three days of key stakeholder involvement. TMNS - SOA Maturity Model Assessment Page 5

6 SOA Maturity Assessment Roeland Lengers Herman Rodewijk June 2009 TMNS b.v. Palazzo Giardino Oude Middenweg AC The Hague The Netherlands Inquiries: Phone: +31 (0) Fax: +31 (0) Copyright 2009, TMNS and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is provided for information purposes only and the contents hereof are subject to change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor subject to any other warranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied in law, including implied warranties and conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document and no contractual obligations are formed either directly or indirectly by this document. This document may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without our prior written permission. TMNS is a registered trademark of TMNS b.v. and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.