SCIM provides a common user schema and extension model, making it easier to interoperate with multiple Service Providers. The core SCIM schema defines a concrete schema for user and group resources that encompasses common attributes found in many existing schemas.

Each attribute is defined as either a single attribute, allowing only one instance per resource, or a multi-valued attribute, in which case several instances can be present for each resource. Attributes can be defined as simple, name-value pairs or as complex structures that define sub-attributes.

While the SCIM schema follows an object extension model similar to object classes in LDAP, it does not have an inheritance model. Instead, all extensions are additive, similar to LDAP Auxiliary Object Classes.