Patent ID: 8090831

Claim:
A method for controlling consistency of policies assigned to objects of a service oriented architecture (SOA), wherein the method comprises: utilizing a computer system to perform: identifying one or more operational dependencies between at least two SOA objects, wherein each operational dependency indicates direct or indirect use of at least one SOA object by at least one other SOA object, wherein the at least two SOA objects have respective assigned policies, wherein each policy comprises at least one assertion, wherein each assertion specifies a required condition or limitation of one or more attributes of the SOA object, wherein assertions of the same type are with respect to the same set of attributes, and wherein assertions of different types are with respect to different sets of attributes; analyzing the assigned policies of the at least two SOA objects to determine any inconsistency, wherein said analyzing comprising starting the analysis with a policy of a lower-level SOA object and comparing the policy with a policy of a higher-level SOA object calling the lower-level SOA object during runtime, wherein an assertion of the policy of the lower-level SOA object is of a different type than each of the assertions of the higher-level SOA object; propagating the assertion as a conditional assertion of the policy of the higher-level SOA object depending on the call of the lower-level SOA object during runtime, wherein the conditional assertion of the policy of the higher-level SOA object comprises the assertion of the policy of the lower-level SOA object contingent upon calling of the lower-level SOA object; and issuing a warning to a user if an inconsistency has been determined.