This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Case Study
- "To regret one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development. To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's life. It is no less than a denial of the soul."
- —Oscar Wilde
Service transformation planning was one of the capability priorities that SOA governance needed so that it could work with the EA group and help govern the resultant business service priorities. Service development lifecycle controls (SDLCs) represent another area of great concern. After all, the adherence to best practices and a consistency of approach across the development organizations are needed, especially to help enforce the results of the service transformation planning.
Service Development Lifecycle Controls
Ideation has known for some time that it needs a common and structured development process. Some groups perform peer reviews from time to time on their code, but the reviews tend to be haphazardly completed.
Another group at Ideation is considering a standardized development approach. Your SOA governance team has been asked to propose governance control gates for the service development lifecycle of
- Business requirements
- Solution architecture
- Service identification and specification
- Service build
- Service test
- Service certification
Control Gates for Ideation
In consultation with the development stakeholders, you decide to create the following control gates for the Ideation SDLC:
- Business Requirements control gate
- Solution Architecture control gate
- Service Design control gate
- Service Build control gate
- Service Test control gate
- Service Certification and Deployment control gate
As a first step, you create the template for the Business Requirements control gate and elicit feedback, as shown in Table 4.3.
Table 4.3. Ideation Business Requirements Control Gate
|
Section |
Contains |
Definition |
|
Motivation |
The justification for this control gate. |
We must have a consistent and well-formed set of business requirements to create services that give us the greatest amount of agility and reuse. This requires that we have a consistent and repeatable approach to the specification of requirements and that this specification gives the required information for the rest of the development lifecycle. |
|
Objective |
The output objective |
Ensure that the business requirements have a sufficient level of content regardless of form so that development can deliver on the requirement; IT will have a true specification of the business need and objective. This better enables IT to size and estimate this project. Enables the alignment of cross-functional teams on the delivery of the business requirement. |
|
Trigger |
Triggering event |
Complete business requirements are delivered by the business to the project manager. |
|
Scale / Applicability Guidance |
Indication of what scale/ style of review is appropriate for the circumstance |
Perform if project is > $100K in size. |
|
Review type |
General classification of review types:
|
A workshop to review the require ments artifact and identify that the correct level of detail per the executive design authority standard for business requirements specification has been followed. The following roles are represented at the workshop: Application architect Process analyst Business architecture Business analyst Requirements analyst Solution designer Project manager |
|
Concept/approach |
Description of how the review is conducted and how it supports the objective |
The project manager schedules and leads the workshop. The application architect, business analyst, requirements analyst, and solution designer must validate the requirements while meeting the needs of the next steps of the development lifecycle. That is, they have the information they need to do a good job and the requirements are understood. The business architecture must validate the requirements by following the architecture review board (ARB) requirements standard. Needed updates to requirements are noted and assigned for follow up, or requirements are approved or disapproved (with updates required). |
|
Governing authority |
Business architecture is the governing authority responsible for validating form and that all standards for business requirements are followed. |
|
|
Responsible/manages |
The project manager schedules and leads the workshop. |
|
|
Accountable - approves/ conditional approval/rejects |
The head of line of business (LoB) must be accountable and approve the business requirements with a final signoff. |
|
|
Consults/supports/performs |
The application architect understands the requirements and ensures all the requirements information needed for the high-level solution architecture (the architecture solution document) is there. The process analyst answers queries about the business process and ensures that the rest of the requirements conform to the applicable processes. The business analyst is responsible for delivering the requirements and is available to answer questions about the requirements or to follow up with any updates needed. The requirements analyst understands the requirements, creates the specification, and identifies the specifications applicable to each development group (to understand which areas are impacted). The solution designer understands the requirements and will take the architecture solution document from the application architect and create the solution design (end-to-end solution). The solution designer also oversees the components of the solution design. Test/QA—Is this requirement sufficiently articulated to be validated? |
|
|
Informed |
All participants, governance specialist. |
|
|
Artifacts to be made available |
The input that is required |
Business requirements should be circulated before the workshop to all participants. (A customer service level agreement [SLA] needs to be considered and agreed to.) Opinions must be sought from the application architect, business analyst, requirements analyst, and solution designer to validate the requirements. |
|
What opinions to be sought |
The application architect, business analyst, requirements analyst, and solution designer must validate that the requirements meet the needs of the next steps of the development lifecycle. That is, they have the information they need to do a good job, and the requirements are understood. |
|
|
Key review criteria |
Highlights the key criteria |
The business requirements standard must be adhered to, including the following:
|
|
Key work product acceptance criteria |
Key acceptance criteria to be met for successful review of work product |
Consistency and completeness of the business requirements must be followed. Any inconsistencies or gaps or opportunities for improvement or rework of the business requirements must be specified. Record next steps, work assigned, and schedule agreed. Any follow up agreed. |
|
Checklist |
Sets a suggested process for the review. Provides objective support for recommendations, rework requests, and signoffs. |
Business requirements checklist will be used. |
|
Escalation process |
Name of escalation process to be used to request an exception to the control gate result. |
Escalates a decision to the program management office (PMO) to drive the business requirements process to conclusion. |
|
Measurements |
Metrics to be captured during or at the end of this control gate. |
Governance metrics on this gate, including incrementing the number of times this gate has been implemented, incrementing the number of times this business unit has been through this gate, and the results (pass, fail, pass with conditions), and the checklist score. |
|
Outcomes |
Who is responsible for final signoff, who gets notified, and who are the results delivered to? |
Final signoff—Head of the LoB. Notification—All on the informed list and service registrar. Delivery—The PMO will be the official owner of the results. |
As a next step, you need to create and get feedback on the control gate for the Solution Architecture control gate, as shown in Table 4.4.
Table 4.4. Ideation Solution Architecture Control Gate
|
Section |
Contains |
Definition |
|
Name |
Control gate name |
Solution Architecture |
|
Motivation |
The justification for this control gate |
Approval to proceed with proposed solutions presented in conformance to technology standards and principles:
|
|
Objective |
The output objective |
To assess deliverable's impact on member domains and resulting consideration:
|
|
Trigger |
Triggering event |
Project manager receives completed solution architecture document. |
|
Scale / applicability guidance |
Indication of what scale/ style of review is appropriate for the circumstance |
Perform if project size > $100K. |
|
Review type |
General classification of review types:
|
A workshop to review the requirements artifact and identify that the correct level of detail per the guidelines has been specified. The following roles are needed: Application architect |
|
Concept/approach |
Description of how the review is conducted and how it supports the objective |
The business analyst must validate the requirements as meeting the standards for requirements, and must then trigger the business requirement review workshop to be scheduled and completed. |
|
Participants, roles, and interests |
Governing authority |
ARB. |
|
Responsible/manages |
Project manager—Trigger the meeting and provide follow up and results. |
|
|
Accountable - approves/ conditional approval/ rejects |
Lead architect—Responsible for presenting and answering question on the architecture solution document. |
|
|
Consults/supports/ performs |
Solution designer—Responsible for representing the technical expertise of standards and policies and evaluating the architecture solution document end-to-end solution as being feasible. Business analyst—Responsible for representing the business client and validatesthat the solution meets needs of the business and accepts or declines proposed trade-offs. Architecture executives—Provide guidance, review output, and ensure governance. Infrastructure architect (if heavy infrastructure in solution)—Have provided infrastructure architecture in the architecture solution document and answer questions as needed. Infrastructure designer—Validate the solution architecture for structural feasibility. Requirements analyst—Review and understand the high-level solution architecture and context of downstream requirements and analyst comments. Data architect—Provided data architecture in the architecture solution document and answers questions as needed. |
|
|
Informed |
All participants, Center of Excellence (CoE). |
|
|
Artifacts to be made |
The input that is required |
Architecture solution document available. |
|
What opinions to be sought |
The solution designer, solution architect, infrastructure designer, and the requirements analyst must validate the architecture solution document as meeting the needs of the next steps of the development lifecycle. That is, they have the information they need to do a good job, and the high-level design is understood. |
|
|
Key review criteria |
Highlights the key criteria |
The architecture solution document must comply with architectural standards, policies, and patterns. The architecture solution document conforms to existing application future views where those views exist. The architecture solution document highlights key infrastructure impacts and requirements. Have services been identified and classified, and are they at the correct level of granularity (services litmus tests)? |
|
Key work product acceptance criteria |
Key acceptance criteria to be met for successful review of work product |
Consistency and completeness of the high-level design must be followed. Any inconsistencies or gaps or opportunities for improvement or rework of the high-level design must be specified. Record next steps, work assigned, and schedule agreed. Any follow up agreed. |
|
Checklist |
Sets a suggested process for the review. Provides objective support for recommendations, rework requests, and signoffs. |
Follow the architecture solution document checklist. |
|
Escalation process |
Name of escalation process to be used to request an exception to the control gate result |
Exceptions to demands for rework can be approved by the ARB. Where the issue is a dispute on service identification, the ARB shall send that issue to the CoE for resolution. |
|
Measurements |
Metrics to be captured during or at the end of this control gate |
Governance metrics on this gate, including incrementing the number of times this gate has been implemented, incrementing the number of times this lead architect has been through this gate, and the results (pass, fail, pass with conditions), and the checklist score |
|
Outcomes |
Who is responsible for final signoff, who gets notified, and who are the results delivered to? |
Final signoff—ARB lead. Notification—All participants are notified and service registrar. Handoff—The PMO will be the official owner of the results. |