Service oriented architecture (SOA) governance, says Gartner*, can be defined as "the processes that ensure the effective and efficient use of SOA in enabling an organisation to achieve its goals". More precisely, Gartner says, SOA governance comprises policies, procedures and rules. "Management 'lives' governance; compliance with SOA governance processes 'demonstrates' governance. Governance arrangements take a long time to design and install, and are difficult to enforce. But, without them, every SOA project out of its pilot phase would be at risk."

With the widespread adoption of SOA, Gartner says, the challenges associated with SOA projects are emerging. Technology-related issues remain significant, particularly in the areas of runtime management, monitoring and testing, all of which are critical to overcoming SOA-related performance, reliability and interoperability issues.