BEA Systems Inc. and IBM Corp. have both added to their SOA (service-oriented architecture) offerings.

For its part, BEA last week offered a free Web-based tool to quantitatively measure a company"s "baseline" for pursuing an SOA strategy.

The tool, called the Service-Oriented Architecture Readiness Self-Assessment, is built around BEA"s SOA Domain Methodology. This methodology focuses on six areas of an SOA: architecture, building blocks, business strategy and process, costs and benefits, organizations and governance, and projects and applications. "The Domain model is the thing that takes SOA from hype to something you could realize," said David Groves, director of professional services at BEA.

Archrival IBM rolled out a new service to aid corporate users in shaping projects to better fit business goals. Called SOMA (Service-Oriented Modeling and Architecture), it is intended to help solve technical and business problems while offering a consistent way to develop technology that provides a better financial return.

"What hasn"t been cracked yet is this notion of how to know I am implementing the right parts of the SOA, or how to know that I am exposing the right services that bring the biggest bang for my buck. This service can help in these areas," said Jim Hilt, IBM"s SOA strategy manager.