A systematized analysis process for SOA services' estimation

Many companies have been shifting their systems' architectures to SOA (Service Oriented Architecture). In spite of its potential, SOA projects are usually complex, costly and risky. Several SOA works have proposed guidelines to help decision-makers estimating costs, efforts and time of a SOA project. However, they are too general and do not offer systematic and very measurable ways of analyzing important IT and organizational aspect related to a SOA project so as to provide a better estimation. This paper presents a method for SOA estimation aiming at filling this gap, helping ICT managers to decide about which systems' functionalities are worthy to be implemented as services. An example of the method is shown and final considerations are presented in the end.