The service-oriented approach delivers IT systems as a set of reusable services that are assembled to create a composite application that automates a business process. This "assembly approach" accelerates the time to market for new applications and reduces IT costs. As a result, organizations can react faster, seize new opportunities and respond more quickly to competitive threats.

However, to successfully adopt SOA and achieve the benefits promised, companies need to adopt new processes around governance, development and operation. Creating these new processes is clearly a risky endeavor. Attempting SOA without these processes is even more risky.

This research provides guidance to clients seeking a structured approach to planning and initiating the series of activities through the first, sensitive steps of the long journey to companywide SOA enablement (while also helping to reinforce the fundamental truth that SOA is, and will remain, a journey, not a destination). This research will also help clients avoid the most-common pitfalls and take best advantage of a maturing SOA endeavor.