The CMMi of SOA: from ESB to ESP, an action-oriented SOA

This post from blogs@ZDNet talks about the announcing that three SOA vendors are lauching something called "SOA Maturity Model". According to this model, SOA has five key phases in its lifecycle: from initial projects to evolution into a full-fledged "enterprise nervous system". The model is based on CMMI from CMU.edu.

We have the "Three SOA amigos": AmberPoint, Sonic Software and Systinet.

The model defines five levels of maturity and sets a vision for business benefits realized at each of these levels.

- Level 1: This is the initial learning and initial project phase of SOA adoption. Projects here are typically done to simultaneously meet a specific need to implement functionality while trying out specific technologies and an approach to SOA.
- Level 2: At this level, standards are set as to the technical governance of SOA implementation, typically under leadership of the architecture organization.
- Level 3: A partnership forms between technology and business organizations in order to assure that the use of SOA provides clear business responsiveness.
- Level 4: Level 4 focuses on measuring and presenting these processes at the business level so as to provide continuous feedback on the performance and business impact of the processes implemented at Level 3.
- Level 5: The SOA information systems becomes the "enterprise nervous system" and takes action automatically according to events occurring at the business level according to rules optimizing business goals.