Most IT directors remain unconvinced about the benefits
of service oriented architectures, with many confused about what
SOA means.
Research conducted by Vanson Bourne for Diagonal Consulting
found that 66% of IT heads of larger firms viewed the notion of SOA
as marketing-led hype. A further 28% saw it as referring only to
software development and architecture.
The research also found that 84% of IT leaders do not believe
their chief executives or finance directors understand SOA. This
led nearly 50% of respondents to conclude that getting boardroom
buy-in for an SOA programme was the biggest barrier to progress in
this area.
A further 26% said they would need to define and map their
business processes more clearly before embarking on an SOA
programme, and 24% said the need to change the architecture of
their applications was holding them back.
Mark Williamson, managing director at Diagonal, said,
"Organisations are making a fundamental mistake if they simply look
at SOA in terms of development and architecture."
He added, "At its core, SOA is about re-engineering the IT
function so that it is able to embrace the development and reuse of
services that can be pieced together to support a business
process."