It goes beyond software reuse, which tends to be a statistic that’s more meaningful to IT organizations. Instead, the tool attempts to quantify factors such as improved business flexibility, which is defined as the ability to introduce new offerings to market more quickly, or to adapt faster to changes in customer demand, government regulation, or the competitive environment.
Using a neck bone is connected to the chest bone approach, in turn it quantifies that improved flexibility is related to faster time-to-market, which in turn means lower development and integration costs. Of course, reuse does factor in here, in the form of avoided or accelerated development, and reduced maintenance.
Admittedly, while many of these factors are not SOA-specific, the SOA connection is the fact that it provides an architecture that theoretically supports these improvements more effectively.
And if the tool has sated your curiosity, IBM Global Business Services is introducing an SOA Business Value Assessment offering which helps clients build the business case for SOA.
These offerings come in the wake of last week’s announcement of roughly a couple dozen new or enhanced SOA products, which also included nearly a dozen new service offerings, such as a new business process management (BPM) methodology based on new vertical industry roadmaps.
IBM plans to roll out the new online tools and services for evaluating SOA business benefits in November.
