Wachovia’s steps to SOA success

Rather than simply create a few services to be shared by applications, Wachovia Bank’s goal was vastly more ambitious: to transform its organization with a flexible new SOA infrastructure. Here’s the step-by-step plan.

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1. Map the future and work toward it. Identify the business and IT goals and create a map of the new, improved organization to serve as a target.

2. Define the components. A flow definition of business and infrastructure components, and who should be assigned to each, is essential.

3. Fill in the details. Create detailed descriptions of all the known components, services, and frameworks involved in the desired SOA end state.

4. Determine the dependencies. Map the interrelationships between all the components, services, and frameworks you have defined.

5. Create a value map. Calculate the increase in technology, spend to achieve SOA goals, and show how operating costs will decrease over time.

6. Outline the business value chain. Map all the business functions that will be affected and how they interrelate.

7. Model data services. Create a comprehensive picture of data services, from repositories to applications, including any translation layers.

8. Build a business and infrastructure runtime model. Draw up plans for how components, services, and frameworks will operate in concert when the SOA is deployed. These plans will stretch from business services to authentication/authorization.

9. Create a utility management model. Ideally, the infrastructure underlying SOA should be as agile as service-based app dev. Plot out everything from SLA management to capacity usage and planning.

10. Create a timetable. A detailed road map for components, services, and frameworks clarifies internal IT goals and manages business expectations.

11. Draw up a dynamic efficiency map. A continually updated chart shows which services have been deployed in which areas and which business units are consuming them.

12. Automate management and tracking. The automated collection of service metadata — and cycling it into reporting and management — is an essential and often overlooked aspect of an effective SOA.