Catalyst Conference: Client Case Study

Citigroup

Building SOA Infrastructure in the Enterprise: A Management Roadmap for Success

Dan Dezen, CitiGroup senior vice president of enterprise architecture development, is involved in one of the world's largest SOA implementations that will provide business-critical dial-tone services. During Burton Group's Catalyst Conference 2005, Dezen shared the following 10 key principles for success.

10 Key Principles
While it's impossible to anticipate every conceivable challenge, the following principles can help you navigate the IT minefield and keep your project on the road to success.

Dan Dezen, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Architecture Development, CitiGroup "We work with a number of IT analysts and research firms. What's different about Burton Group is their front-line experience. They get involved with customers and roll up their sleeves to understand the details of our projects."

1. Create a Charter
   Document the objectives, challenges and milestones of your team and get buy-in at the highest levels in the organization.
   
   
   • Clearly articulate the goals of your team
   • Get buy-in at the highest levels in the organization
   • Define roles and responsibilities
   • Establish unambiguous ownership
2. Define Principles and Rigorously Adhere to Them Every organization needs guiding principles. To ensure competence, Dezen uses seasoned professionals with shop-floor experience. He also advises breaking projects into iterative pieces with specific budgets.
   • Standards-based
   • Heterogeneity
   • Competence
   • Iterative
   • Model-driven

   "Burton Group helped CitiGroup set up an SOA special interest group and provided an analyst to kick off the first session."

   
   
3. Promote Internal Education and Evangelism
   CitiGroup's quarterly SOA special interest group (SIG) meetings provide an excellent forum for internal education and cross-departmental collaboration.
   
   
   • Define SOA
   • Explain the benefits
   • Build internal consensus and support
   • Start a SIG
   • Get application developers and data center operations excited
4. Build the Right Team
   CitiGroup brought in the best people it could find to make its SOA project succeed.
   
   
   • Program and project management
   • Architects
   • Engineers
   • Deployment management
   • Operations
5. Find Internal Business Customers with Real Business Problems to Solve
   A good internal business partner can make sure you understand the business needs and business value you're trying to deliver.
   
   
   • Avoid a "science project" and find a "business project"
   • Get internal business partners committed to SOA principles
   • Look for the SOA sweet spot-massive reuse
6. Create an Environment for Quick Success
   Define an iteration of your project that will deliver results soon. Prioritize features, "focusing on where you can achieve the greatest business value."
   
   
   • Deliver in incremental steps that demonstrate clear value
   • Include business-critical deliverables (such as security, compliance or regulatory issues)
   • Be vigilant on scope creep
7. Ace the Architecture and Technology Issues
   "You or someone on your team must become an expert in the technology that touches your project," states Dezen. This knowledge must transfer upon project completion.
   
   
   • Master SOA technology's "moving parts"
   • Define governance and security models
   • Understand long-term support strategy
   • Identify business owners
   • Maintain focus on operations and engineering
   • Prepare for production support
8. Maintain "Vision Track"
   CitiGroup uses an internal vision architect to monitor its technology roadmap and those of its key vendors.
   • Continuously engage customers to understand requirements and opportunities
   • Keep current with vendor innovations and potential applicability
   • Prioritize deliverables for subsequent iterations
   • Track standards
9. Publicize Success
   According to Dezen, "The more people hear your success stories, the more likely they are to get behind your project.
   
   
   • Keep all stakeholders up to speed on achievements
   • Never miss an opportunity to advertise shop-floor success
   • Produce internal "public relations/advertising" materials
   • Make sure all team members share in success

   "Burton Group brings a real good third-party perspective to our decision-making process-it's something that I want to leverage even more as we move forward."

   
   
10. Select Key External Business Partners
    Find the best external consultants and business partners available.
    
    
    • Research and analyst assistance
    • Product vendors
    • Service vendors

Expert Analysis and Advice
Since 1990, Burton Group has enabled enterprise technologists to make smarter IT architecture and infrastructure decisions. Burton Group offers the following resources and insights to help your organization get technically in-depth, straight, and practical research and advice:

• Reference architecture (decision-making framework)
• In-depth research
• Telebriefings
• Unlimited analyst dialogues
• Methodologies and Best Practices documents
• Catalyst Conference
• Consulting services

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