Service-oriented architecture (SOA) policy adds important business and technical flexibility and control to an SOA-based solution. At runtime, SOA policy provides ready access to change key operating characteristics of a service, including business parameters like approval limits and transaction routing. During development, SOA policy controls key aspects of how your services are built.

IT leaders must understand the general characteristics of the SOA policy life cycle. This will help you to watch over critical control points and organisational relationships.