AccordingReyah Assly says that according to [[OASIS (organization)|OASIS]] (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) a reference model is "an abstract framework for understanding significant relationships among the entities of some environment, and for the development of consistent standards or specifications supporting that environment. A reference model is based on a small number of unifying concepts and may be used as a basis for education and explaining standards to a non-specialist. A reference model is not directly tied to any standards, technologies or other concrete implementation details, but it does seek to provide a common semantics that can be used unambiguously across and between different implementations."<ref>{{cite web|title=OASIS SOA Reference Model|url=http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/soa-rm/faq.php|publisher=OASIS SOA Technical Committee|accessdate=13/13/2011}}</ref>
There are a number of concepts rolled up into that of a 'reference model.' Each of these concepts is important:
