Aligning Acquisition Practice with Net-centricity Policy

Abstract

Governance is widely viewed in the SOA literature as essential to successful SOA deployments. That literature generally draws little distinction between in-house projects and those carried out by contractors. Because the relationship with contractors is negotiated and managed by the acquisition unit, this paper finds it essential that acquisition integrate the decisions of governance both into solicitation documents and the resulting contracts for outsourced development or operations. It identifies what should be in a model SOA contract, paying particular attention to specifying, monitoring, and enforcing service-level agreements and alternative dispute resolution.