SOA-based systems are more quickly and efficiently deployed and more effectively managed through a disciplined approach to SOA runtime governance. In this presentation we outline key problems addressed by SOA runtime governance and current practices for effectively implementing runtime governance in SOA environments. SOA runtime governance problems include: 1. Understanding the service network topology described by the services that participate in the service network and the message traffic flowing among those services. 2. Actively maintaining established availability and performance service levels. 3. Enforcing authentication, authorization, privacy and integrity security constraints in an application-independent fashion. 4. Managing the business transactions supported by the service network including active management of transaction performance and availability as well as detection, diagnosis and correction of business transaction faults. 5. Validating the correct operation of the service networking on a continual basis in order to actively manage dynamic changes to the service network. The current practices for effective runtime governance are then outlined based on experiences captured in over 100 SOA implementations. The practices focus on governance architectures, capabilities and processes proven to be effective in these SOA implementations. The presentation also outlines areas in which some established practices are less effective than expected in support of effective runtime governance specifically focusing on processes in which development organizations must proactively participate in the governance activities. The presentation also outlines the benefits of various approaches in terms of reduced development cost, more responsive system changes, improved operational management and faster and more cost-effective service network evolution.