Proven practices, patterns, principles, and technologies exist in support of service-orientation. However, because of the distinctly strategic nature of the target state that service-orientation aims to establish, there is a set of fundamental critical success factors that act as common pre-requisites for its successful adoption. These critical success factors are referred to as pillars because they collectively establish a sound and healthy foundation upon which to build, deploy, and govern services.

The four pillars of service-orientation are:

• Teamwork – Cross-project teams and cooperation are required.
• Education – Team members must communicate and cooperate based on common knowledge and understanding.
• Discipline – Team members must apply their common knowledge consistently.
• Balanced Scope – The extent to which the required levels of Teamwork, Education, and Discipline need to be realized is represented by a meaningful yet manageable scope