Harmonizing Business and Digital Enterprise Strategies Using SOA Middle-Out and Service-Based Approach

Abstract

The organization's agility represents its ability to respond fast to changes by the transformation and/or
optimization of business processes, therefore it is a key factor in the competitiveness and growth of the organization.
Bearing in mind the importance and expansion of the use of digital technologies, the organization's agility can be
compromised if the digital strategy and IT resources are not flexible enough to adequately respond to changed
business conditions. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an approach to the development of business software
systems that promote better alignment of business and digital strategy, i.e. business goals and IT resources, enabling
the organization to faster adapt and respond to changes in the business environment. However, the success of the SOA
initiative depends largely on the choice of delivery strategy and the way services are identified, as well as the choice of
an approach in the implementation of SOA, given the way of integration and communication between services. The
middle-out delivery strategy is a compromise between top-down and bottom-up approach. This approach, at the same
time, supports SOA implementation guided by a strategic vision, business strategy and strategical goals, and use of
existing IT resources with focus on urgent requirements and tactical goals. Realization of middle-out delivery strategy
is based on several small, iterative SOA projects, where each individual SOA project was implemented to meet
specific business goals and requirements. On the other hand, in order to respond to new challenges and requirements
of the digital era regarding the distribution, scaling and increased complexity, SOA evolves towards increasing agility
and a simpler, service-based approach at business and technical level. This avoids the complexity of the Enterprise
Service Bus (ESB) as an integrator in communication between the services. Avoiding the ESB as a universal mediator
and orchestrator in communication between the services enables a serious shift in the delivery speed and scalability of
software solutions. This paper, in general, discusses the ways of more efficient alignment of business and digital
enterprise strategies based on the implementation of SOA initiatives for the development of business software
systems. Within the framework of the research of this paper, the very significant challenges and best practices are
identified and clearly distinguished, as well as the advantages and disadvantages, related to the architectural and
methodological aspects of the implementation of the SOA middle-out delivery strategy and service-based approach.
The complete research effort, as well as the results obtained, is dedicated to the effective implementation of SOA in
the context of the development of business software systems. The results of the work include consideration of the
evolution of SOA-based approaches in the digital era, leading to increased agility and a reduction of complexity.