Governance of services: a natural function for agents

The objective of service-oriented computing (SOC) is to construct software applications out of appropriate services available and executing in place anywhere across the Web. To achieve this objective requires that techniques for discovering and engaging services be developed and used across the lifetime of the service-based applications. Doing this well requires that additional techniques be developed for ensuring desired quality of service metrics and servicelevel agreements. The crucial aspect of using services is thus their governance.