Giving credit where credit is due: David Linthicum wrote the article. I just Tweeted about it.
Anne On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 1:24 PM, Rob Eamon <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I'm reminded of Anne's point (also made by others?) that architecture isn't > the effort/project of interest. It is the broader effort that prompted the > architecture definition/rework that is key. One doesn't "do architecture" > for the sake of architecture. > > "ROI of architecture" is misplaced, IMO. The creation of a blueprint to > guide the creation of something is but a small part of the entire process. > > Thoughts? > > -Rob > > --- In [email protected], Todd Biske > <toddbi...@...> wrote: >> >> Reading this makes me wonder how many other efforts fall into the same >> category? Lack of a business case or clear ROI is not a problem >> specific to SOA. It is a problem for everything IT does. This is why >> it is no surprise to me that Anne found a positive correlation between >> solid application rationalization/portfolio management efforts with >> SOA success. I suspect the same thing will be true with cloud >> computing, at least for companies with existing infrastructure. For >> startups, it is a different story since they don't have to answer the >> "what are my current costs" question. >> >> -tb >> >> Todd Biske >> http://www.biske.com/blog/ >> Sent from my iPhone >> >> On May 21, 2009, at 7:24 AM, Gervas Douglas <gervas.doug...@...> >> wrote: >> >> > >> > >> > Thanks to Anne for pointing out this article: >> > >> > >> > "A new Gartner survey of SOA architects finds 40 percent do not >> > measure how long it takes to achieve a ROI for their SOA -- or if >> > the darn thing had any business benefit, for that matter. Shame on >> > you guys! According to the survey: >> > >> > Gartner, which carried out the survey among enterprises from around >> > the world, also highlighted the fact that 50 per cent of those who >> > had not yet adopted SOA technologies did so because they could not >> > articulate and demonstrate the business value of it. >> > >> > [ Keep up on developments in SOA with InfoWorld's Technology: >> > Architecture newsletter. ] >> > >> > The fact is that people love doing SOA, or SOA-like things, but hate >> > doing the business cases or, more importantly, the analysis that >> > needs to be done on the back end. There are no reasonable >> > expectations set going into the project, nor any measurement of >> > success on the back end. Thus, who knows if the SOA provided any >> > business value? Also, there are no clear objectives. >> > >> > Massimo Pezzini, research vice president and fellow at Gartner, said >> > that many companies were approaching SOA projects with excessive >> > expectations and little awareness of the effort, resources and time >> > needed to achieve any benefits. >> > >> > Some SOA projects are perceived to have failed when in fact there >> > are simply no well established metrics to evaluate success," he said. >> > >> > Folks, you can't figure out if SOA is going to have any business >> > value without doing a business case up front. This means >> > understanding your core needs and how SOA will create an >> > architecture that solves actual problems, and not just looking to >> > push out an SOA because it seems like the right thing to do. >> > >> > The metrics/analysis are pretty simple: >> > >> > What are the current inefficiencies within the enterprise >> > architecture, and how much do you think that's costing the business? >> > What is the value of reuse, and how much reuse can you expect? >> > What is the value of agility? >> > What is the estimated cost of the project? >> > What are the estimated benefits from the dollars spent? >> > More importantly, how we define success -- or when we've achieved >> > the objectives of the project? >> > >> > There's no excuse for leaving the ROI analysis out of this process. >> > You've been hearing that from me for years, so go run some numbers." >> > >> > You can read this at: >> > http://www.infoworld.com/d/architecture/soa-roi-does-not-seem-be-priority-265 >> > >> > Gervas >> > >> > >> > >
