Services are the functionally consistent atomic units of work with technical boundaries, providing the required level of autonomy where principles of the service orientation are applied in order to maintain characteristics that are essential for achieving the goals of service orientation.

Service orientation is the architectural approach that is based on the recognition of a service as a unified business block.

One of the key roles of the independent standards (WS-* specifications) is to ensure that service-oriented solutions based on these standards stay truly vendor-neutral.

The SOA framework is a structured and technically independent area where design principles and standards can be repeatedly applied together in a measured balance during various stages of analysis, modeling, development, implementation, testing, and governing in order to achieve the desired technical characteristics. As some WS-* specifications can be seen as a framework as well, most of the SOA frameworks have a compound nature.

SOA patterns are commonly accepted and approved solutions to repeatable and recognizable problems usually occurring in different frameworks, while implementing combinations of standards and principles.