Assessing the governance maturity of the organization's service-oriented architecture using the COBIT framework

Master's thesis

In the field of information technology

Abstract:

Today, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is considered as a suitable approach to improve the agility and increase the efficiency of systems. Since organizations face many challenges in the process of using this technology, such as the complexity of designing the decision-making structure, management and governance of services, and the lack of governance processes, therefore, they need a comprehensive and applicable framework for SOA governance to overcome the existing challenges and define the governance structure and control mechanisms. Also, to determine a road map for establishing a service-oriented architecture, it is necessary to determine the maturity level of the governance of this architecture. In this research, existing frameworks and challenges of service-oriented architecture are studied. Therefore, we use COBIT, which is a standard organizational information technology governance framework, to establish a service-oriented architecture in the organization and examine the maturity level of service-oriented architecture governance. The proposed framework, focusing on the coverage of SOA governance components and a criterion for determining the level of governance maturity, provides a suitable solution for the effective governance of service-oriented architecture and developing a roadmap. Keywords: governance maturity, service architecture Oriented, SOA Governance Framework, COBIT, SOA Roadmap Chapter 1 Introduction and research overview 1.1 Introduction Today, information technology and especially service-oriented architecture has created opportunities to improve the agility and efficiency of information systems development. This architecture is a strategy that includes two aspects of organization and technology. From the point of view of technology, the organization needs to provide an infrastructure (organizational service gateway [1]) to establish interaction and integration, and from an organizational perspective, it needs an appropriate organizational structure, definition of responsibilities and related organizational roles, with software development and formulation of appropriate processes for designing services, identifying new services and cycles. It is the life of services. On the other hand, in order for the business field to quickly adapt to changes, it must be able to access a set of business services and shared services. Even though many companies are trying to provide the requirements and prerequisites in the process of SOA implementation [2], but due to the complexity of this process, they mainly face challenges such as: (service ownership, determining the decision structure, defining and determining shared services, managing change of shared services, evaluating efficiency and quality service, management of service levels) and may deviate from the right path and fail in spite of expending a lot of energy and large investments. Therefore, in order to deal with the mentioned challenges and obtain the benefits of this technology, the organization needs to establish a suitable behavioral system to provide the necessary organizational capabilities in addition to defining roles and responsibilities and determining the decision-making structure. This behavioral system is actually the governance system. Governance [3] is a mechanism that ensures rules Policies, standards, and procedures have been accepted and accepted in the organization. That is, we ensure that people do everything that is right. 1.2 Definition and statement of the problem Lack of governance can be a serious obstacle to the success of the organization. Service-oriented architecture governance is the use of organizational governance to realize service-oriented architecture. 41 [SOA governance is a concept that is used for activities related to services in service-oriented architecture and The governance of services is used in their implementation cycle. SOA governance solves the challenges raised in the process of implementing and accepting service-oriented architecture by creating capabilities in the organization. These capabilities are covered by using an effective service-oriented architecture framework.

The governance framework of service-oriented architecture includes 1) a governance reference model that is used as a starting point and includes 4 main components of technical infrastructure, policies, processes and roles, and 2) life cycle Service, which is a repeatable process for defining the service and localizing the SOA governance model]. 41[

The main goal of the service-oriented architecture governance framework is to establish the architecture.41[

The main goal of the service-oriented architecture governance framework is to establish a service-oriented architecture in the organization. The framework defines a gradual approach that, in addition to covering its current needs, the organization can monitor the achievement of SOA long-term goals. Discovery, use, definition, design, implementation, execution and management of services are defined.

Services are invested and service owners are identified.

Services are created according to governance policies.

Services are designed, built and executed in a secure way.

Services are managed in a scalable way [4]

SOA governance roles, responsibilities and permissions are known and implemented acceptably.

Accordingly, the organization needs a program that is the same as the service-oriented architecture roadmap and based on a SOA governance framework in a gradual approach and by measuring the maturity of service orientation, it will help companies to start moving towards SOA and manage the transition to SOA at each stage, and in this way the expected benefits of SOA such as service reuse, integration improvement, interoperability and get business agility.

In this research, in order to provide the main components of a desirable service-oriented architecture governance, we will learn about the existing SOA governance frameworks, and for organizations to move towards the establishment of service-oriented architecture governance, [5] we will study and use COBIT, which is a control framework for information technology governance. This framework fully addresses the evaluation of processes, governance structure, and control mechanisms. The COBIT framework does not support some important elements of SOA governance. We use the main components of the organization's service-oriented architecture and the governance life cycle based on COBIT and the knowledge of a SOA governance maturity model to evaluate and measure the maturity of the organization's service-oriented architecture governance. Its components, policies and features are intended to provide a favorable framework for organizations to establish service-oriented architecture governance and integrate service orientation with information technology to increase the organization's flexibility to achieve business goals. Based on this, the purpose of this research can be divided into the following sections:

Alignment of information technology and business with a focus on business processes and support for information technology and business drivers

Organization of service life cycle processes and governance based on the process model

Definition and management of measurable control goals for each process

Familiarity with the concepts and principles of service-oriented architecture and understanding the relationship between the principles and issues raised and the relationship They are related to the subject of governance

Explaining the importance of service-oriented architecture governance and its implementation requirements

Knowing the components of service-oriented architecture governance

Introducing the requirements of the service-oriented architecture governance framework

1.4 Research questions

The existence of a suitable framework that includes all the requirements and capabilities and components of SOA governance and can help the organization in the path of adopting service-oriented architecture is mandatory, and since different frameworks For the governance of SOA, questions are raised in this context that must be answered: What are the requirements to move towards the desired state of the organization? How can we have a governance maturity model of the organizational service orientation architecture for the COBIT governance framework so that we can use it to determine the position of the organization in the competitive market? Dad!?

What are the features and components of a desirable SOA governance framework to define service-oriented COBIT?

1.5 Scope of the research

The main and major focus in this research is to present a method based on the COBIT framework so that service-oriented architecture can be deployed in the organization. In COBIT, which is a standard for organizations, a model for measuring the maturity of information technology governance It has been explained.