|
« ETL, ELT - Challenges and Metadata |
Main
| RFID Is Dead! Or Is It? »
Governance is an industry buzzword these days, with all the SOA initiatives going on, one would think that Governance would be on the top of the list as well. If you're not governing your enterprise consolidation, you probably are not taking full advantage of the benefits and cost savings that could be coming your way. Sure governance is an uphill battle in the beginning, sure everyone fights standards and agreed standards, and yes - absolutely - no one can seem to decide on how to define the common data sets (common data model). But if you're involved in, or working with SOA it is imperative to engage governance at the enterprise level. However it's not just governance that makes it work, a formal methodology should be utilized to assist with the governance as the organization organically grows its efforts. These include: ITIL, SEI/CMMI and a few others.
I've defined different kinds of governance in my articles here on B-Eye Network in the past, just for re-iteration, I'll define the governance again:
Governance
n 1: the persons (or committees or departments etc.) who make up a body for the purpose of administering something; "he claims that the present administration is corrupt"; "the governance of an association is responsible to its members"; "he quickly became recognized as a member of the establishment" [syn: administration, governing body, establishment, brass, organization, organisation] 2: the act of governing; exercising authority; "regulations for the governing of state prisons"; "he had considerable experience of government" [syn: government, governing, government activity] Webster’s Definition of Governance, http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=governance
IT Governance
IT governance ensures IT-related decisions match company-wide objectives by establishing mechanisms for linking objectives to measurable goals. IT governance is the decision rights and accountability framework for encouraging desirable behavior in the use of IT. IT Governance: http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dyoung/MMIS-6393/Reading-IT-Governance-defined.htm
Data Governance
Is a combination of people, process, and technology required to support the ongoing management of the enterprise wide data that will be centralized. (my definition)
SOA Governance
SOA Governance is the ability to ensure that all of the independent efforts (whether in the design, development, deployment, or operations of a Service) come together to meet the enterprise SOA requirements. … Including SOA Policies, Auditing and Conformance, Management (track, review, improve), and integration. SOA Governance: http://www.weblayers.com/gcn/whitepapers/Introduction_to_SOA_Governance.pdf
So what is SEI/CMMI in the first place?
Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is a process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/general/general.html
And how does it affect my governance?
It can BE your governance guidelines. SEI/CMMI has (built-in) governance procedures. All governance requires that the efforts be monitored, measured, and of course estimated before started. There are all kinds of estimations that must take place ranging from RISK analysis, to implementation ability, to project lifecycle, and implementation time. If you aren't estimating, then measuring (something akin to Earned Value Management), then you are not exercising effective governance, and certainly - you cannot improve on what you cannot measure.
What are some of the groups involved in governance?
Diagram adapted from: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-improvesoa/
MDM Initiatives are like any other, they will require governance to be executed properly. In fact, any initiative that “serves” at the enterprise level should fall under an over-laying governance initiative. Master Data and Master Metadata are highly visible, therefore: high risk = high return = high visibility = high pressure to do it right. This means that Governance cannot and should not be ignored when addressing the MDM initiative. Again, MASTER DATA and MASTER METADATA serve the entire enterprise.
Central governance:
Best for the enterprise. The governance council has representation from each service domain (more on this later) and from subject matter experts who can speak to the people who implement key technological components of the solution. The central governance council reviews any additions or deletions to the list of services, along with changes to existing services, before authorizing the implementation of such changes.
Distributed governance:
Best for distributed teams. Each business unit has control over how it provides the services within its own organization. This requires a functional service domain approach. A central committee can provide guidelines and standards to different teams.
Guiding principles:
- Reuse, granularity, modularity, composability, and componentization
- Compliance to standards (both common and industry-specific)
- Services identification and categorization, provisioning and delivery, and monitoring and tracking
Specific architectural principles:
- Encapsulation
- Separation of business logic from the underlying technology
- Single implementation and enterprise-view of components
- Leveraging existing assets wherever an opportunity exists
- Life cycle management
- Efficient use of system resources
- Service maturity and performance
Why should I utilize SEI/CMMI as my methodology guide for Governance?
- About 95% of companies have a formal IT strategy which in most cases is "reasonably“ aligned to the business strategy (~80%) Source: The Compass World IT Strategy Census 2001
- However, research concludes that there is no evidence that IT spending levels positively correlate to companies’ productivity (IT productivity paradox) Source: Information Productivity, P. Strassmann 1999, Information Economic Press
- Paradoxically, 80% of strategic decisions related to IT are only based on “gut feeling“ Source: Gartner Symposium News Preview 2002, Florence, Italy
- Businesses typically waste 20 % of corporate IT budgets on investments which fail to achieve their objectives Source: Gartner Symposium News Preview 2002, Florence, Italy
- The companies that manage their IT most successfully generate returns as much as 40% higher than their competitors Source: Accenture project experience
CMMI Helps reduce and control IT Spending, in other words, CMMI is GOVERNANCE for IT in action!
Come see my TDWI presentation in Las Vegas, February 2007 on Governance, Compliance, and CMMI principles. I'm also teaching "Defining and Understanding MDM"
As always, I'd love to hear your experiences, positive and negative about governance principles. Please comment!
Cheers,
Dan Linstedt
CTO, Myers-Holum, Inc
http://www.MyersHolum.com
|
