More than anything, though, a successful SOA initiative requires a strong IT governance program. Companies that have problems controlling the software development life cycle in their IT departments or that have done a poor job getting a handle on IT project ROI, business alignment, and portfolio management won't find that SOA cures everything. In fact, they may just get themselves deeper in the hole.
SOA is all about factoring business functionality into shared, reusable services, and then assembling those services into automated business processes. Because it's disruptive technology that can impact not only your company's IT department but also operations, accounting, and myriad other departments, installing a SOA in your organization will require a new level of collaboration across departmental boundaries.
