While organizational business units and departments are in a hurry to embrace Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), without a proper control or governance of SOA adoption, the organizations are at risk of building unmanaged SOA environments that result in chaos and failure. The success of SOA largely depends on a robust governance mechanism. As a first step, organizations must start by defining a Governance Model addressing various challenges surrounding SOA space. In this article, we will discuss the key objectives of SOA governance and the various artifacts required for establishing a sound SOA Governance Model. A well-defined Governance Model will act as a foundation for long-lasting SOA success.

SOA Governance Objectives
Organizations are SOA-enabling their applications using technologies like the orchestration engine (BPEL), Enterprise Service Bus, and Web Services. While these technologies and standards help realize the objectives, they don't guarantee SOA success. Success and ROI are not primarily dependant on enabling technology platforms or vendors. SOA success is challenged by an altogether different set of issues that are related to process discipline, collaboration, organization culture, and decision-making.