Patent ID: 8200522

Claim:
A method for deploying a reference model of a SOA framework to a target Information Technology (IT) environment comprising: performing a set of activities by a computer during a transition enablement stage, within which a gap analysis report is generated based on an analysis performed between a reference software component model for a service oriented architecture (SOA) framework and a target software component model to be executed in a specific IT infrastructure environment, wherein said target software component model is a customized version of the reference software component model, the gap analysis report specifies for each software component of the software reference model a reference platform for the software component, a list of available platforms, a target platform of the specific IT infrastructure environment for implementing the software component, differences between the reference platform and the target platform, and changes to be made to at least one of the target platform and the software component to resolve the differences, the gap analysis report further defines the differences and changes that are agreed upon by a deployment team and a client's IT team; performing a set of activities by a computer during an environment preparation stage, within which an assessment is conducted of the necessary software component customizations to the reference software component model for the target software component model and within which an assessment of changes needed to the IT software and hardware environment are made; wherein ending the transition enablement stage and beginning the environment preparation stage occurs upon establishing the gap analysis report; performing a set of activities by a computer during a sandbox delivery stage, within which a test environment having characteristics of the IT infrastructure environment as it exists after the changes resulting from the assessment is established, within which a deployable version of the target software component model including the software component customizations and reference software components is tested within the test environment, and within which a tested version of the target software component model is deployed to the IT infrastructure environment, which has been changed in accordance with changes resulting from the assessment, and wherein each stage of the method is a distinct phase that must be successfully completed before activities for a subsequent stage are performed.