The purpose of the meeting was to
progress the work of the SOA Working Group. There were sessions
devoted specifically to the Relation of SOA to Enterprise Architecture and TOGAF,
and to Reference Architectures and Maturity Models for SOA; and
there was a session devoted to a review of the Working Group's entire
work program.
Summary
The Working Group has three approved projects in progress,
and another five project proposals under active discussion.
The three approved projects are:
Definition of SOA
This project has delivered a basic definition
of SOA, and is now working on an expanded description.
Case Studies
The objective is to illustrate cases where SOA delivers benefit and,
if possible, cases where it does not.
Ontologies for SOA
The Ontologies for SOA project will identify and, where necessary, develop
formal ontologies that will more precisely define the concepts,
terminology, and semantics of SOA in both business and technical terms.
The five new proposals are:
SOA Enterprise Architecture and TOGAF
This is proposed as a joint project with The Open Group
Architecture Forum. Its main purpose is to identify the impact of SOA on
The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF),
and to provide guidance to organizations using TOGAF for SOA.
SOA Reference Architecture
This will identify layers, building blocks, and relationships
that together form a blueprint for a solution,
and that can be related to product categories and instantiated by products.
It will result in a reference architecture for SOA
that can be used in conjunction with TOGAF.
SOA Maturity Model
A maturity model assesses aspects of an SOA - such as
how loosely-coupled the services are - and gives a picture of how well-developed a particular enterprise architecture is as an SOA.
This can be used to enable an enterprise to determine what it needs to do
to move to a desired state of SOA implementation from its current state.
It can also be used to assess the degree to which two SOAs are likely to be able to interwork.
Business-Driven SOA
There is a great deal of emphasis on the technical characteristics of SOA.
This effort will focus on the managed evolution of business needs/potential
and IT needs/potential. It will help capture common,
cross-vendor understanding of the business drivers behind SOA.
Possible deliverables are a
guide to explaining the business concepts underlying SOA, and a set of
scenarios for business-driven SOA.
SOA Governance
The objectives are, in the short term,
to create an SOA Governance reference architecture and,
in the long term, to create standards for SOA Governance tool interoperability.
The SOA Enterprise Architecture and TOGAF, SOA Reference Architecture,
and SOA Maturity Model project proposals were discussed in depth. Project leaders were
identified, and project strategies were developed.
A presentation was given on
the proposed Business-Driven SOA project, and
its scope and objectives were discussed.
Outputs
This report, and the detailed minutes
(available to members only) are the outputs of the meeting.
Next Steps
The next steps are to:
Proceed with the approved projects for Definition of SOA, Case Studies, and Ontologies
for SOA, as planned
Finalize the descriptions of the SOA Enterprise Architecture and TOGAF, SOA Reference Architecture, and
SOA Maturity Model projects,
and submit them for approval by vote of
members of the Working Group
Further develop the proposals for the
Business-Driven SOA and SOA Governance projects
