IT Governance continues to be a hot topic being discussed at the board level and executive strategy sessions. While SOA Governance is a subset of larger IT Governance imperative, it is every bit as important. As companies are investing heavily in technologies and personnel to achieve SOA, it is important to understand and dispel the myths and confusion about SOA Governance to ensure the right path to success.

As service-oriented architecture (SOA) moves from early-adopters to mainstream corporate initiatives, companies are challenged to quickly achieve their intended goals of business agility and cost savings from service reuse. As the primary advocate of SOA within a company, the SOA architect is tasked keeping these goals in perspective while implementing technology and more importantly, processes that will drive the changes needed to make SOA impactful to a business across multiple organizational (and sometimes geographic) boundaries.