Determining compatibility among service versions

A computer-readable storage medium (CRSM) storing software that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to:

• receive a description of a later version of a service and a description of a previous version of the service, each description comprising a versionable service model item and one or more versionable type items, each versionable service model item comprises a name and a version, and each versionable type item comprises a name, a version, and a description;
• perform a service model-based compatibility assessment by determining whether a versionable type item in the later version of the service has been added or changed with regard to the previous version of the service;
• and
• perform a versionable type-based compatibility assessment by comparing the descriptions between pairs of corresponding versionable type items among the later and previous versions of the service.

A computer system, comprising:

• a processor;
• storage accessible to said processor, said storage contains software that is executable by said processor;
• wherein said software causes the processor to receive a description of a later version of a service model and determine backward compatibility of said description of the later version of the service model with a description of a previous version of said service model;
• wherein each service model comprises one or more versionable types, each versionable type having an associated descriptions.