In this chapter, we will discuss how Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) as a design approach allows us to achieve certain goals and the characteristics that have to be maintained to make these benefits feasible. The practical ways of attaining these characteristics are based on a concrete balance of very well-defined principles, and we will closely look at each one of them. This balance is maintained in specific areas of relevance and is formed in a structure of frameworks. Here, we will discuss issues that are frequently encountered within and across these frameworks, and the common patterns employed as a publicly approved way of solving these recurring problems. One of the main purposes of this chapter is to give developers and architects a matrix of the design rules (patterns) in relation to the corresponding frameworks, all based on SOA principles.