Mr. Szakal holds undergraduate degrees in Biology and Computer Science and a Masters Degree in Computer Science from James Madison University.

IBM has repeatedly recognized him for his role in building the IBM federal government software business. Mr. Szakal has been a driving force behind IBM's adoption of federal government IT standards and is a member of the IBM Software Group Strategy Team. He and his architect team have been responsible for helping the federal government move e-Government into the On-Demand era. His team has been directly involved with multiple high profile successful government software and services engagements based on open standards and open source. These engagements include the following programs: US Air Force GCSS-IF, Department of Education Office of Student Financial Aid Modernization, FBI Trilogy, IRS Modernization, Customs Modernization, SSA Modernization and the e-filing initiatives at the USDA.

Mr. Szakal is a proponent of service oriented and web services based enterprise architectures and participates in open standards and open source product development initiatives within IBM.

Presentation
SOA Governance - An Architect's Per
SOA helps an enterprise create business value by helping them realize a more integrated, adaptable and flexible infrastructure that allows the organization to more quickly respond to changing business environments. The SOA approach breaks down a company’s business tasks and the underlying IT into reusable components or “services." These services can be combined and recombined as clients’ business needs change. How well an organization effectively manages the implementation, deployment and operations of these services can either inhibit or facilitate their adoption of SOA. The effective management and oversight of SOA based services is referred to as SOA Governance.

This session will provide an overview of SOA Governance and a case study that outlines the process for succesfully establishing a SOA Governance program. It will also identify areas of SOA Governance where the members of The Open Group may contribute to evolving industry standards and best practices.

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