The self-monitoring SOA

A central feature of the Corporate and Investment Bank's services-oriented platform is its focus on measuring and managing usage and performance like a utility, Bishop explains. "This is a franchise; we're making it repeatable and scalable. You get your burgers, fries, and Coke every single time. You plug it in and it works."

In addition to managing services contracts and making sure they get fulfilled ("guaranteed execution"), the system tracks runtime usage -- how many processes and transactions went across, and on top of which components and services. "We want to know: What was the efficiency contribution?" Bishop asks. "Were 100 person-days reused? Who's consuming and how are they consuming? ... Like a CFO would look at it."

Also, CIB's portfolio management tool ties component contributions and reuse to the MBO (Management by Objectives) metrics of the business unit developers and system leaders.

So far, according to CIO Certoma, the $100 million-plus, per-year investment appears to be paying off. "After they saw our execution last year, they doubled our budget this year," she says. "And there's never endless money -- that means they had to be conservative in other areas."