Who’s eating Sally’s brownies?

My column in this week’s SD Times News on Thursday has elicited some positive feedback. In “Snacks in the Break Room,” I shared some thoughts inspired by a chat with WebMethods’ Miko Matsumura regarding SOA governance.

One point regarded the constast between a policy-based SOA arrangement between corporate IT and service departments (which I term “demand-comply”) and an agreement-based SOA arrangement between a company and its outside service providers (“request-respond”).

It’s worthwhile pondering the balance-of-power relationship between service providers and their customers (who willingly enter mutually beneficial agreements), vs. the arrangements between centralized IT and its internal customers (where the terms of the engagement are dictated by top-down policies or executive mandate, not negotiated between peers).