Overview
ISO/IEC 18384-3:2016 - part of the Reference Architecture for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA RA) - defines a formal SOA ontology. The standard provides a structured vocabulary and semantic model for the key concepts used in service-oriented architecture, aligned with the vocabulary in ISO/IEC 18384-1. It is intended to support consistent understanding, modelling, and machine-processing of SOA concepts across tools, architectures and organizations.
Key topics and technical scope
The standard organizes SOA concepts as classes, properties and datatype attributes and includes normative and informative material (examples and OWL definitions). Major technical topics include:
- Core ontology structure
- Classes such as Element, System, HumanActor, Task, Service, ServiceContract, ServiceInterface, InformationType, Composition, Policy, Event, Effect, Process.
- Inter-class properties
- Interaction and relationship properties such as uses/usedBy, represents/representedBy, performs/performedBy, orchestrates/orchestratedBy, generates/generatedBy, respondsTo/respondedToBy.
- Service modelling constructs
- Service consumer/provider roles, ServiceContract semantics (interactionAspect, legalAspect), ServiceInterface inputs/outputs, constraints and effects.
- Composition patterns
- Composition and service composition with common patterns (orchestration, choreography, collaboration).
- Governance and dynamics
- Policy application, event modeling and behavioural effects.
- Formalization and conformance
- OWL-based ontology definition (Annex C), conformance rules and numerous worked examples (e.g., car wash, internet purchase) for practical clarity.
Applications and practical value
ISO/IEC 18384-3:2016 is useful for anyone needing a formal, interoperable semantic model of SOA concepts:
- Enterprise architects & solution architects - create consistent service models and architectures.
- Ontology engineers & semantic web practitioners - import the OWL ontology to power reasoning, validation and metadata mapping.
- Tool vendors & integrators - align modeling and registry/repository products to a standard vocabulary for interoperability.
- Governance, compliance and procurement teams - specify service contracts, SLAs and policies with unambiguous definitions.
- Developers & systems engineers - use the ontology to clarify service interfaces, inputs/outputs, and composition behavior.
Related standards
- ISO/IEC 18384-1 (vocabulary and general SOA RA)
- Other SOA and enterprise architecture standards and profiles that address service modeling, governance and metadata registries.
ISO/IEC 18384-3:2016 helps standardize semantics for Service Oriented Architecture, enabling clearer service design, automated reasoning, consistent documentation and better interoperability across SOA ecosystems.
Open preview (PDF)Information technology — Reference Architecture for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA RA) — Part 3: Service Oriented Architecture ontology
