Survey: even the best of the best are still new at SOA

Aberdeen Research has just completed and published a survey of 950 companies, and concluded that "between a third and half.. are having serious difficulties getting their SOA-enabled applications into stable deployment." The survey was underwritten by three SOA specialty vendors -- iTKO, Mindreef, and Progress Actional.

I'm not surprised to hear about SOA deployment issues, and frankly, expected a higher number. One finding did grab my attention: Aberdeen sorted out the "best-in-class" companies -- the top-performing 20% of companies -- and found only a third (33%) of this group has more than two years experience with SOA technology, which means two out of three of the most advanced SOA sites don't even have at least two years' experience yet. We're all new to this animal called SOA, and even the best and brightest are still trying to learn what it's all about.

With everything just getting out of the starting gate, it's no surprise, then, that most of the overall survey group, 77%, say they have not yet seen a "payback" from their SOA. However, most of the best-in-class segment, 68%, claim they are "achieving positive ROI on their SOA investments" (whatever that means), as well as lower application development costs under SOA. 

So, why are the "best-in-class" companies seeing so much success from their SOA at such an early stage -- especially when most companies are still struggling with SOA?

Aberdeen says that it's because most, if not all, of the best-in-class companies have implemented design-time governance and re-use policy to minimize lifecycle service costs, compared to 26% overall. As part of this, more than 80% of the best in class groups have implemented an automated solution to SOA operations and governance.

This study provides vivid proof that governance and reuse do help deliver successful results for SOA efforts. This particularly holds true for the cost-saving aspect of SOA, such as cutting application development and deployment times. An especially important element is the adoption of design-time governance. As the report observes, "design-time governance is where programmers can be 'encouraged' to re-use existing services, saving the initial coding time and long-term maintenance costsof writing new but duplicative program code."

However, measuring and reporting SOA success -- whatever that may be -- is a tricky thing. The best-in-class companies got to where they are because they have the wherewithal and know-how to establish measurable performance metrics, and how to apply them directly to the business. Thus, they have more visibility to see more precisely how SOA methodologies (as well as other technology initiatives) may be saving money in certain areas, or enhancing aspects of the business, such as sales growth.

Can we assume that because those companies that can measure results are seeing good results from SOA, that there are many hidden success stories happening out there? Perhaps. But those firms that know how to measure results tend to have higher success rates at things anyway.

Many companies don't have the resources to measure results around SOA, and may not even know what, exactly, should be measured. You can't blame them -- it's an inexact science. When it comes to business growth (versus cost savings from development costs), even the most advanced companies I've spoken with do not have specific metrics they can use to track the impact of SOA. Right now, it's all anecdotal evidence, such as increased developer or user satisfaction.

Figuring out what impact, if any, SOA is having on driving new sales and customer wins is still unexplored territory. And, as the survey reminds us, even the best of the best don't even have two years under their belts yet.