The transactions standards address the problem of providing well-defined semantics for the combined result of a group of Web Services operations on distributed resources.
The goal semantics can be ACID (where the atomicity, consistency, isolation and durability properties hold) or a more relaxed version of it.
To achieve this kind of solution, the models assume temporary and recoverable fault models for the machines and networks.

There are two frameworks for transactions in Web Services: WS-Coordination and WS-CompositeApplicationFramework.

WS-Coordination serves as basis for two service coordination approaches. WS-AtomicTransaction is suitable for cases where resources can remain locked for the duration of the transaction and assures ACID properties using two phase-commit distributed consensus protocols. WS-BusinessActivity is suitable for longer-lived transactions and relaxes transactional properties, like isolation, to achieve its goals.

WS-CompositeApplicationFramework is structured in three blocks. WS-Context defines simplified context management operations. WS-CoordinationFramework specifies the coordinator to manage the context lifecycle and to assure the message delivery to participants. WS-TransactionManagement specifies several protocols, including: two-phase commit, long-lived transactions, and business process workflows; it also addresses interoperability between different transaction manager implementations.