Two models of handling transactions; backward based transactions and forward based transaction compensation, need to be integrated into a model which can be used in distributed transactions, including web service transaction models, and also be extended to other models in the future. Backward based atomic transactions handling ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability), two phase commit (2PC) and resource locking is not suitable for long-lived transaction or  loosely-coupled nature and autonomy of web services.

This paper presents the Backward-Forward Transaction Service Design Pattern which combines backward based transactions and forward based transaction compensation that can be used independently of the EJB, MTS or other technology supporting the two models.