This paper attempts to look at well - established concepts of governance in public and corporate life that can be applied for SOA governance. The authors also propose the use of Montesquieu’s power sharing formula that can help constitute the SOA governing bodies along the lines of Legislative, Executive and Judiciary branches in a government.
Every enterprise that has been using IT as a business enabler is thinking of, discussing about or experimenting with Service Oriented Architecture. However, a key issue that has been identified in the SOA context is the governance of the Service Oriented Architectures. This paper attempts to look at well - established concepts of governance in public and corporate life that can be applied for SOA governance. The authors also propose the use of Montesquieu’s power sharing formula that can help constitute the SOA governing bodies along the lines of Legislative, Executive and Judiciary branches in a government. In the end, the paper attempts to give the structure, roles, processes and tools that will together help set up an overarching model to attain the best SOA governance possible, enabling enterprises in realizing the promise of SOA -- agility, effi ciency and adaptability.