Web services are a key contributing factor in the ways Web commerce is conducted today. Web services enable application/programs to communicate by sending small and large chunks of data to each other.

A web service is essentially a software application that supports interaction of applications over a computer network or the world wide web. Web services usually interact via XML documents that map to an object, computer program, business process or database. To communicate, an application sends a message in XML document format to a web service which sends this message to the respective programs. Responses may be received based on requirements and the web service receives and sends them in XML document format to the required program or applications. Web services can be used in many ways examples include supply chain information management and business integration among a multitude of other applications.

JBossWS is a web service framework developed as part of the JBoss Application Server. It implements the JAX-WS specification that defines a programming model and run-time architecture for implementing web services in Java, targeted at the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 (Java EE 5).

JBossWS integrates with most current JBoss Application Server releases as well as earlier ones, that did implement the J2EE 1.4 specifications. Even though JAX-RPC, the web service specification for J2EE 1.4, is still supported JBossWS does put a clear focus on JAX-WS.