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Value Potentials and Challenges of Service-Oriented Architectures

Results of an Empirical Survey from User and Vendor Perspective

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Abstract

This article summarizes the results of an empirical study among large German enterprises regarding the value potentials and challenges of service-oriented architectures (SOA).

The 21 value potentials and 13 challenges examined were identified and structured based on an advancement of SOA value models already existing in literature as well as on a series of expert interviews.

Key results regarding the implementation and evaluation of the SOA-Concept are: The majority of the users only run one or a few SOA-based applications and the share of services in their IT-landscape is on average about 10%. Among the design principles proposed in literature, especially loose coupling and good documentation of interfaces are implemented. Clear capsulation of functionality and the definition of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), however, are hardly applied. The interviewed companies assess the relation of the value of a SOA introduction compared to its cost currently as slightly negative, but with a positive trend for the upcoming years. It is shown that the assessment of the overall value positively correlates with the duration of SOA usage. Among the 21 examined value potentials, optimization of business processes, increased agility and cost reduction due to parallel re-use of services receive the highest ratings. According to the interviewed experts, the main challenges are operation (performance/security) and the management (governance) of the architecture. These challenges hinder value realization and lead to a moderately positive assessment of the overall concept.

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Notes

  1. Following the procedure proposed by Diekmann (2007, pp. 239 ff.) rf. (Bryman 2008, pp. 141 ff.).

  2. This structure differs slightly from the model presented in Abelein et al. (2009), which divides the effects difficult to quantify even further. Since these effects are not focused on here (see, description of the value concept in Chapter 1), the model has been simplified.

  3. The survey was designed for 60 minutes (avg. 63 min). The interviews were conducted by telephone, except for four conducted in person at the request of the respondents. In three interviews two company experts participated.

  4. The U-Test according to Mann-Whitney (Rasch et al. 2010, pp. 143 f.) was used to test for significance between user and vendor groups, as – due to the small number of data sets on the vendor side – the assumption of normally distributed data for the t-test could not be sufficiently verified.

  5. The challenge could be assessed on a scale from 1 = “to disagree strongly” up to 7 = “strongly agree to”, with 4 being a neutral assessment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Information Systems, Technical University Darmstadt, Hochschulstraße 1, 64289, Darmstadt, Germany

    Alexander Becker,  Thomas Widjaja &  Peter Buxmann

Authors
  1. Alexander Becker
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  2. Thomas Widjaja
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  3. Peter Buxmann
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Correspondence to Alexander Becker.

Additional information

Accepted after two revisions by Prof. Dr. Bichler.

This article is also available in German in print and via http://www.wirtschaftsinformatik.de: Becker A, Widjaja T, Buxmann P (2011) Nutzenpotenziale und Herausforderungen des Einsatzes von Serviceorientierten Architekturen. Ergebnisse einer empirischen Untersuchung aus Anwender- und Herstellersicht. WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK. doi: 10.1007/s11576-011-0280-4.

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Becker, A., Widjaja, T. & Buxmann, P. Value Potentials and Challenges of Service-Oriented Architectures. Bus Inf Syst Eng 3, 199–210 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-011-0167-3

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