Citigroup consolidation will be a real test for SOA governance

I just posted some observations on how the best SOA governance may resemble the way the US Constitution is set up, with separation of powers and jurisdictions. I held up Citigroup as a shining example of this thinking, as they have an SOA governance structure set up with a "national" (corporate) government overseeing overall direction; "state" (divisional) governments to make things happen; and "local" (line of business; departmental) governments to manage specific applications.

Now, ZDNet blogging colleague Larry Dignan reports that Citigroup may cut 17,000 jobs as the result of a three-month efficiency review designed to cut annual expenses by $1 billion. Larry observes that Citigroup CEO Charles Prince has expressed concern over the financial services giant's rat's nest of separate and redundant middle and back office businesses. Citigroup's challenge is to "rebuild and connect old — sometimes very old — technology systems," he said.

Such a challenge is tailor-made for SOA. Citigroup appears to be ahead of the curve in SOA thinking, which was no doubt prompted by the recognition that this huge Spaghetti Oriented Architecture needed to be brought under control and integrated. The long-term success of this integration effort will someday be a good case study for SOA, if it all comes together.