TeleconferenceWhy Is SOA Hot In Government? Gene Leganza
Vice President
Forrester Research
September 25, 2006. Call in at 10:55 a.m. Eastern Time
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Theme
Agencies need executive leadership to drive the
organizational and process changes that SOA
requires.
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Agenda
• Forrester’s definition of SOA
• Forrester survey data on trends in government IT
• Some survey data from US federal enterprise architects
• What does this mean for SOA in government agencies?
• Recommendations
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Forrester’s definition: SOA
► Applications are organized into business services that are (typically) network-accessible.
► Service interface definitions are first-class development artifacts.
► Quality of service characteristics are explicitly specified in the design.
► Services are cataloged and discoverable by development tools and management tools.
► Protocols are predominantly, but not exclusively, based on Web services.
A style of design, deployment, and management of applications and software infrastructure in which:
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Traditional applications versus SOA
Traditional applications SOA
Designed to last Designed to change
Tightly coupled Loosely coupled, agile, and adaptive
Integrated silos Composed of services
Code-oriented Process-oriented
Long development cycle Interactive and iterative development
Cost-centered Business-centered
Favors homogeneous technology Favors heterogeneous technology
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Which of the following are likely to be one of your IT organization’s major initiatives for 2006? (3 or 4 on a scale of 1 [not on our agenda] to 4 [critical priority])
31%
20%
31%
26%
46%
74%
61%
61%
20%
20%
22%
59%
71%
73%
73%
31%
Government
Nongovernment
Base: 852 nongovernment IT decision-makers and 59 IT decision-makers at government agencies
Reduce the number of software infrastructure vendors that we work with
Adopt software-as-a-service
Reduce the number of major application vendors that we work with
Implement application portfolio management
Move software implementations to standards-based technologies
Reduce software costs in any way
Significantly upgrade your security environment
Improve integration between applications in your company
Source: Business Technographics® November 2005 North American And EuropeanEnterprise Software And Services Survey
© 2006, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
2005 Spending Compared With 2004
Integration and eGovernment are hot in US federal agencies
From US Federal IT Spending Rising Unevenly, April 2005
© 2006, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
From US Federal IT Spending Rising Unevenly, April 20052005 Spending Compared With 2004
Integration and eGovernment are hot in US federal agencies
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Does your company currently run mainframe COBOL applications?
Nongovernment
Government
Source: Business Technographics® November 2005 North American And EuropeanEnterprise Software And Services Survey
Base: 554 nongovernment IT decision-makers and 29 IT decision-makers at government agencies
© 2006, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Government IT Typically Spends More On O&MApril 2006, Trends “2006 Government IT Spending Won’t Jump”
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Which of the following best describes your firm’s approach to or status of service-oriented architecture (SOA)?
Nongovernment
Government
Source: Business Technographics® November 2005 North American And EuropeanEnterprise Software And Services Survey
Base: 611 nongovernment IT decision-makers and 51 IT decision-makers at government agencies
42%
35%
43%
33%
13%
10%
19%
24%
16%
18%
10%
16%
Not pursuing, and noimmediate plans to do so
Will pursue within 12 months
Use selectively,without a clear strategy
Have an enterprise-level strategy and commitment for SOA
Don't know
© 2006, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
US Federal Enterprise Architects Are More Committed To SOA Than Private Sector Counterparts
April 2006, Trends “US Federal Enterprise Architects Are Committed To SOA, But Procurement Gets Complicated”
© 2006, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
And Fed Architects Expect SOA Usage To Grow
April 2006, Trends “US Federal Enterprise Architects Are Committed To SOA, But Procurement Gets Complicated”
© 2006, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Agencies Mainly Use SOA For Internal Integration
April 2006, Trends “US Federal Enterprise Architects Are Committed To SOA, But Procurement Gets Complicated”
© 2006, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
But Federal Government SOA Leadership Is Distributed Throughout The Enterprise
April 2006, Trends “US Federal Enterprise Architects Are Committed To SOA, But Procurement Gets Complicated”
© 2006, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
But Standard Procurement Processes Get In The Way Of Service Reuse
April 2006, Trends “US Federal Enterprise Architects Are Committed To SOA, But Procurement Gets Complicated”
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What does all this mean?
• Integration is a top priority.
• Legacy applications are a major issue.
• SOA is hot, but:
» Budgets are tight — there is no money to fund a major technology transformation.
» Procurement — and other IT management processes — can throw a monkey wrench into the works.
» Agencywide leadership is largely missing.
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What it means, continued
SOA’s near-term value for government agencies will lie in its ability to enable integration.
The reuse benefit may lag behind other benefits as procurement and governance processes evolve.
Agencies are doomed to reinvent the wheel unless they pursue active leadership and coordination.
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Key questions for a new IT approach include:
• Which development and support teams are responsible for which SOA application subsets?
• Which SOA application subsets are funded by which budgets?
• When the user says, "The application is down!" which team do we call first?
• How many teams will have to work together to deliver a complete business solution?
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The elements of a mature SO-IT organization
• A clear, compelling, concise SOA vision
• Strong business-IT collaboration
• Clear IT, enterprise architecture, and SOA governance practices
• A clear focus on the critical importance of service interface definitions
• Coordinated architecture and infrastructure evolution
• Clear understanding of the funding model for SOA
• Service delivery life-cycle and roles adaptations for SOA
• A library of patterns for service design and implementation
• A process for service value measurement
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SOA leadership and guidance from the federal government
• SOA Community of Practice:http://web-services.gov/soacop/
» First SOA for eGov conference May 06. See http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SOAforEGovernment_2006_05_2324 and http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/SOACoP/2006_05_2324/.
• Chief Architects Forum (see www.gsa.gov/collaborate)
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Agency leadership and strategy
• Create a center of excellence for SOA planning.
» EA group has structures and processes in place.
» Implement as a technology strategy center-of-excellence and/or a clearinghouse for SOA initiatives.
» Use business architecture to analyze agency needs and prioritize expected benefits from SOA (reuse, integration, etc.).
» Use design patterns as the vehicle for communicating best practices.
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Recommendations
• Define the vision for SOA adoption in your agency using “street-level strategy”:
» Pursue a strategy that contributes to long-term enterprisewide goals while addressing near-term pain points — build the future state one project at a time.
• Create an organizational clearinghouse for all SOA-related initiatives — such as your enterprise architecture program office.
• Provide one-stop shopping for guidance on technology selection and implementation strategies.
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Gene Leganza
+1 203/761-8848
www.forrester.com
Thank you