Service-oriented Architecture: Describing Benefits from an Organisational and Enterprise Architecture Perspective

Software architecture models describe the technical structure, constraints, and characteristics of software components and the interfaces between them. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a recent software architecture style with many benefits if used in the right context. Business agility, customer satisfaction, faster time to market, ease of partnering and lower business costs are some promised benefits. Yet SOA has not always benefitted organisations. One reason given is a misunderstanding of the relationship between SOA and enterprise architecture (EA). Therefore, this study in a large retail organisation in South Africa describes SOA benefits and classifies them into the various EA domains. SOA benefits are also classified into six broad categories namely: strategic, organisational, operational, managerial, maintenance and governance. The study comprises three cases from one organisation that deployed different architectures. SOA benefits are contrasted with benefits from other approaches. Organisational benefits not described before include greater collaboration amongst SOA participants enabling better learning opportunities. The results should assist IT management in preparing SOA business cases and in managing SOA deployments to ensure benefits are achieved.