Members of OASIS, the OMG and The Open Group met at the February 2009 Open Group conference in San Diego, CA, to discuss positioning and harmonization of their ongoing SOA projects and activities. They concluded that there was no significant obstacle, and made plans to continue this activity.

"Open Group members are telling us that differences between SOA standards are causing confusion in the market place, and asking for harmonization of concepts and models to facilitate widespread adoption of SOA," said Chris Harding, The Open Group Forum Director for SOA. "The differences between the approaches of OASIS, the OMG and The Open Group are more apparent than real. This harmonization work will lead to better standards for interoperability, and assist the take-up of SOA."

"This is a fundamental step for SOA and a great moment for cooperative, inter-organizational standards development," said Duane Nickull of Adobe, chair of the OASIS SOA Reference Model Technical Committee. "The SOA paradigm is huge, and there is much work to be done. Coordination between groups will ensure related SOA standards will work together without unnecessary overlap, contradiction or redundancy."