November 6th, 2008
Gartner: SOA sinking into trough of disillusionment
Did Gartner find SOA has entered its so-called “trough of disillusionment”?
A new survey by the consultancy found that SOA doesn’t seem to be as popular as it was a year ago. Why? Is it the economy? Maybe — but it may be a maturing of the methodology, tempered by the recognition that SOA won’t deliver results overnight.
A new report out of analyst firm Gartner says that since the beginning of 2008, “there has been a dramatic fall in the number of organizations that are planning to adopt SOA for the first time.” Last year, in 2007, 53% of organizations in surveys were planning to launch their first SOA forays, a number that dropped to 25% this year.
Currently, 53% of the companies Gartner surveyed have SOA-based projects in progress. (Presumably, many would have been those in the planning stages in last year’s survey.) Sixteen percent had no plans at all to adopt SOA, up from six percent in 2007.
Daniel Sholler, research vice president at Gartner, said organizations are more aware these days that SOA is not something adopted on the fly, and that a deliberative governance process is needed to make SOA a worthy business venture. And, as also noted frequently here at this blogsite, there’s a shortage of professionals with the skills to bring it all together:
“Organizations without a clear business case for SOA and without a plan to develop or acquire the necessary skills are justified in taking a cautious approach, and delaying SOA adoption plans for the coming year. The focus should be on creating shared services and the governance processes necessary for sharing within a reasonable domain. Larger organizations (more than 5,000 employees) are challenged to create enterprise governance.”
The Gartner statement observes that “the two major reasons that organizations choose for not pursuing SOA are a lack of skills and expertise, and no viable business case.” Gartner also said that “conversations with many Gartner clients have shown that there is a great deal of confusion about how to construct a business case for SOA. Even if a valid business case exists, then the required skills are often unavailable in-house, and the costs and effort to develop in-house skills and acquire outside expertise are often daunting.”
Remember, as Gartner tells us, once a technology approach passes through the trough of disillusionment (because it didn’t live up to the hype), it enters a quieter period in which practitioners roll up their sleeves, sit down, and figure out ways to make it all work.
UPDATE: Miko Matsumura reminds us of the Nucleus Research study that found that “only” 37% of organizations are seeing ROI from their SOA efforts. Many read into those results as proof that SOA is a dud; but, frankly, 37% wasn’t too shabby of a number for something companies have just barely begun to embark on. There are strong opinions on both sides of the matter — reader bjbrock, for one, says SOA has failed to show ROI thus far.
Joe McKendrick is an author and consultant with deep knowledge and insights regarding trends and developments in the technology industry. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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