SOA Governance in the Low Countries

Abstract

When organizations start adopting service oriented architecture (SOA) as their main enterprise architecture (EA), they often face many obstacles that can be mitigated by performing good SOA governance. A prominent example of a sector in which many organizations choose SOA as their EA is the utilities sector. Furthermore, organizations are influenced by national culture, because employees reflect their national culture in the form of habits, manners, norms and values.

This research explores the relation between SOA governance and national culture in the utilities sector. A literature study on the topic of SOA governance and SOA governance maturity is performed. Based on the literature study, a SOA governance maturity model is developed and evaluated by experts. Using that model, SOA governance maturity is investigated at four electricity suppliers in the Netherlands and Belgium, forming a case study.

Five propositions are formulated based on academic literature about the relation between national culture and elements of SOA governance maturity. The propositions are tested against the results of the case study. For two out of five propositions it was found that they are supported by evidence in practice. Furthermore, the results show that a weak relation between SOA governance maturity and national culture exists. However, other factors also play in important role in a utility company’s SOA governance maturity.