ISO/IEC 9594 has been produced to facilitate the interconnection of information processing systems to provide directory services. A set of such systems, together with the directory information that they hold, can be viewed as an integrated whole, called the Directory. The information held by the Directory, collectively known as the Directory Information Base (DIB), is typically used to facilitate communication between, with or about objects such as application entities, people, terminals and distribution lists.

ISO/IEC 9594-6:2014 defines a number of attribute types and matching rules which may be found useful across a range of applications of the Directory. One particular use for many of the attributes defined is in the formation of names, particularly for the classes of objects defined in ISO/IEC 9594-7. Other attributes types, called notification attributes, provide diagnostic information. ISO/IEC 9594-6:2014 defines context types which supply characteristics associated with attribute values. It also includes definitions for lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) syntaxes relevant for attribute types and matching rules.