Semantic Web Technologies in Support of Service Oriented Architecture Governance

As Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) deployments gradually mature they also grow in size and complexity. The number of service providers, services, and service consumers increases, and so do the dependencies among these entities and the various artefacts that describe how services operate, or how they are meant to operate under specific conditions. Appropriate governance over the various phases and activities associated with the service lifecycle is therefore indispensable in order to prevent a SOA deployment from dissolving into an unmanageable infrastructure. The employment of Semantic Web technologies for describing and reasoning about service properties and governance requirements has the potential to greatly enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of SOA Governance solutions by increasing the levels of automation in a wide-range of tasks relating to service lifecycle management. The goal of the proposed research work is to investigate the application of Semantic Web technologies in the context of service lifecycle management, and propose a concrete theoretical and technological approach for supporting SOA Governance through the realisation of semantically-enhanced registry and repository solutions

SOA Governance – Road into Maturity

There is a general consensus that SOA benefits could be reached but it is unclear how to achieve this. Research shows that the problems with SOA governance in practice are among the major reasons of SOA failures. Based on a literature review, this study first proposes a list of SOA aspects to be considered when implementing SOA governance. By adopting an interpretive research methodology based on interviews, this research paper makes two contributions: it addresses the practical matters that are major concerns for organisations to achieve a higher maturity level with their SOA, and it reveals the importance of the key SOA aspects in building strong governance and consequently reaching a higher maturity level. The expected result should deliver a theoretical contribution to SOA maturity in relation to SOA governance; it could provide organisations with new awareness in assessing their level of maturity and provide recommendations

Towards a Generic Governance Model for Service Oriented Architectures

Over the past years, Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) Systems have been recognized more and more as a serious alternative to common monolithic systems for Enterprise Architectures (EA). An SOA provides a flexible means of effectively mapping business processes to IT processes. However, large IT systems require consistent leadership – IT Governance. For SOAs, governance faces new challenges. A number of different approaches for SOA Governance Frameworks exist, which differ extensively in scope and capability, as most of them are product-driven and developed by software companies. In this paper, we outline and compare existing SOA Governance approaches and present our approach - a Generic Governance Model for SOA

SOA-Governance

Zusammenfassung: Serviceorientierte Architekturen (SOA) tragen zur Steigerung der Komplexität betrieblicher IT-Strukturen bei. Ohne geeignete Kontroll- und Steuerungsstrukturen kann die resultierende Komplexität zu Strukturen führen, deren Wartung und Pflege ähnlich aufwendig wird wie die der bestehenden evolutionären Applikationslandschaften, die sie ablösen sollen. Um dies zu verhindern, ist der Aufbau einer ganzheitlichen SOA-Governance unumgänglic

WS-Governance: a Policy Language for SOA Governance

The widespread use of Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) is beginning to create problems derived from the governance of said structures. To date there is not a single effective solution to solve all existing challenges to govern this type of infrastructure. This paper describes the problems encountered when designing a SOA governance solution in a real e-Government scenario. More specifically, we focus on problems related to specification and automated analysis of government policies. We propose a novel SOA governance specification model as a solution to these problems. We have named this model WS-Governance. in order to ease its adoption by SOA practitioners it: i) shares WS-Policy guidelines and is compatible with it, ii) has XML serialization as well as a plain-text one and iii) has a CSP based semantics that provides a precise description as well as facilitating the automation of some editing and WS-Governance related activities such as consistency checking

Cloud computing governance reference model for cloud service consumers

Cloud computing is changing the way organizations utilize IT resources with a corresponding impact on the role of IT governance. This paper describes proposal of adapting SOA Governance Framework and COBIT 5 framework to govern cloud computing services from cloud consumer perspective. Proposed Cloud computing governance reference model takes into account the structure of SOA Governance Framework. Cloud computing governance reference model serves as a basis for the definition and establishment of Cloud computing governance and defines a set of new or redefined guiding principles, governing processes and governed processes based SOA Governance processes and COBIT 5 governance processes which are fully adapted to cloud computing environment from a cloud service consumer perspective. Proposal of Cloud computing governance reference model is an output of research process according to the Design Science Research Methodology

Applying TOGAF to Define and Govern a Service-oriented Architecture in a Large-scale Research Project

The Service-oriented Architecture paradigm has become a widely adopted solution for enterprise application landscapes. SOA promises system integration improvement, business and IT alignment, applications reusability, and fast adaptability to changing requirements. Yet, the advantages that SOA offers lead to its main management challenges. An SOA consists not only of services. Business requirements, processes, models, rules, policies, and different stakeholders play also an important role. To manage this increased complexity and heterogeneity in SOA landscapes enterprises apply architecture frameworks and governance approaches. An essential enabler for SOA Governance is the traceable documentation of the service-oriented application landscape. This paper shows how the TOGAF Architecture Development Method was applied in a large-scale SOA-based research project to support the governance proposes in the context of a service marketplace. Supplementary templates were defined to guide the description of services, data models, and architectural components. Some of the models and decisions proposed by TOGAF were shifted to other phases to fit the innovative nature of research projects

The relationship among development skills, design quality, and centrality in open source projects

The paradigm of the Internet of Services envisions trade on a global service-enabled internet. Companies, which participate in this new world of services, face the challenges of changing market conditions, new competitive threats, and new legal regulations. Service-oriented Architectures (SOA) provide a promising way to address some of these challenges at the level of the company’s IT infrastructure. In order to guideline an enterprise’s organization and IT and ensure smooth operations, governance frameworks have been established. More specifically, IT Governance and recently SOA Governance have been introduced. The basic structure of IT Governance frameworks is applicable to an SOA. However, they lack functionality or applicability concerning SOA-specific challenges. Current approaches, which focus on mere SOA Governance, lack framework scope and are mostly driven by individual companies. This issue aggravates taking into account the shift to an Internet of Services. We identify key issues and provide initial insights on building blocks for a Service Governance Framework which enables operations for companies in a moderated service network. We discuss service life cycle phases, stakeholder roles, and management processes taking into consideration existing frameworks such as ITIL and CObIT as well as industry-specific approaches from companies such as SAP, Oracle, and HP

A Governance Reference Model For Service-oriented Architecture-based Common Data Initialization A Case Study Of Military Simulation Federation Systems

Military simulation and command and control federations have become large, complex distributed systems that integrate with a variety of legacy and current simulations, and real command and control systems locally as well as globally. As these systems continue to become increasingly more complex so does the data that initializes them. This increased complexity has introduced a major problem in data initialization coordination which has been handled by many organizations in various ways. Serviceoriented architecture (SOA) solutions have been introduced to promote easier data interoperability through the use of standards-based reusable services and common infrastructure. However, current SOA-based solutions do not incorporate formal governance techniques to drive the architecture in providing reliable, consistent, and timely information exchange. This dissertation identifies the need to establish governance for common data initialization service development oversight, presents current research and applicable solutions that address some aspects of SOA-based federation data service governance, and proposes a governance reference model for development of SOA-based common data initialization services in military simulation and command and control federations