Evaluating the Use of ITIL to Manage SOA Applications in Operations Environments

Abstract

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles encourage software applications to be designed for dynamic reuse, integration and interoperability with other software applications thereby reducing time-to-market of software applications that support new or changed business processes. However, implementation of SOA applications in enterprise systems has not been as wide as would have been expected given the benefits SOA applications offer to both IT and business. One of the many reasons cited for slow adoption of SOA applications in enterprise systems are issues of Quality of Service (QoS) experienced with the applications in operations environments. Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is the most widely used framework for management of Information Technology (IT) services that has been proven to improve customer satisfaction and operational efficiencies of services that IT departments offer to business. This research investigated the extent to which ITIL can be used to improve QoS of SOA applications in operations environments. It was observed that, ITIL version 3 offers processes that when applied in environments where SOA applications have been deployed, a significant amount of improvement in the QoS of the applications was reported by management of IT departments. IT practitioners reported several advantages of using ITIL to manage SOA applications including: performance improvement as a result of improved application monitoring, faster problem isolation and resolution, improved service quality and more controlled change to applications. Some disadvantages of using ITIL were also observed.