1. A method for providing functions in an industrial automation system having control units which are coupled by a communication network, comprising: providing functions of the industrial automation system from services; subdividing components of a service into service-specific components and into components which are reusable by a plurality of different services, the service-specific components and reusable components having a standard configuration interface; linking components of the service to a service by a service configuration unit over the standard configuration interface; and assigning functions for at least one of monitoring and controlling a defined quality of service to the reusable components.