SOA maturity model a frame of reference

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an architectural style that supports service orientation. In reality, SOA is much more than architecture. SOA adoption is prerequisite for organization to excel their service deliveries, as the delivery platforms are shifting to mobile, cloud and social media. A maturity model is a tool to accelerate enterprise SOA adoption, however it depends on how it should be applied. This paper presents a literature review of existing maturity models and proposes 5 major aspects that a maturity model has to address to improve SOA practices of an enterprise. A maturity model can be used as: (i) a roadmap for SOA adoption, (ii) a reference guide for SOA adoption, (iii) a tool to gauge maturity of process execution, (iv) a tool to measure the effectiveness of SOA motivations, and (v) a review tool for governance framework. This paper also sheds light on how SOA maturity assessment can be modeled. A model for SOA process execution maturity and perspective maturity assessment has been proposed along with a framework to include SOA scope of adoption.