Relating SOA Governance to IT Governance and EA Governance

Abstract

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) governance is considered a key success factor when using a service-oriented approach for aligning IT to business. However, some organizations misinterpret the role of SOA inside the organization and there is scarce empirical evidence about how SOA governance is applied in practice. This research paper will study the position of SOA governance in relation to Information Technology (IT) governance and Enterprise Architecture (EA) governance inside the organization. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts in the field. The findings illustrate how organizations initially considered SOA governance as a separate entity; they recently started seeing the relationships between SOA governance, IT governance, Enterprise Architecture governance and corporate governance. In this paper, different views and opinions are presented; nevertheless, they all lead to the conclusion that SOA governance need to be considered at a higher level inside the organization and organizations should not treat SOA governance as a separate entity from and IT governance and EA governance.