Over the past few columns I've spent some time discussing SOA governance-why it's important, how organizations should approach it, and how policies, processes, metrics and culture work together to create (hopefully!) an effective SOA and SOA governance strategy. In this column, I wanted to take a closer look at the last part of the SOA governance process-automation. Like many other parts of the IT infrastructure and software development lifecycle, the more you can automate your SOA governance, the more effective and efficient it will be. It will be easier to enforce, easier to use and will provide greater payback than a non-automated process.