Requirements for BPM-SOA Methodologies: Results from an Empirical Study of Industrial Practice

The Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach has been developed to enhance the integration of various systems functionalities to allow organizations to be more flexible in case of business changes. This paper will explain what aspects (hereafter called "components") need to be included into a SOA methodology. These components are defined in a model developed from an analysis of the state of the art in SOA and related areas. The components are classified into five groups (hereafter called "domains"). From August 2008 to January 2009, an empirical study has been performed on a world-wide basis to test the SOA domain model with the identified critical success factors. The results of this questionnaire give first answers to questions and assumptions discussed in academia about process-driven SOA implementation methodologies.