A computer-implemented device engineering method comprising: synchronizing data of a plant network hierarchy and data of one or more registered devices, in a database in a device management system, to a simulation server; and executing, in a simulation mode, at least one function of the device management system via communicating with one or more simulated devices, while the device management system being not communicatively coupled to any physical control station configured to control one or more physical field devices for a real plant; introducing virtual parameters into the one or more simulated devices for simulation communication response codes and device statuses; simulating, for device configuration, i) configurable device parameters; ii) non-configurable device parameters; and iii) the device status, with the one or more simulated devices generated from one or more device description files in the plant network hierarchy in the simulation server for the one or more registered devices in the field device communication server in the device management system; and executing parallel communications from a communication request handling component in the field device communication server to the one or more simulated devices in the plant network hierarchy in the simulation server simultaneously, wherein the parallel communications comprise sending communication requests from the communication request handling component to the one or more simulated devices in the plant network-hierarchy in the simulation server; wherein simulating the device status comprises: responding, by the simulated device, to a communication request from the communication request handling component with communication response data by using the virtual parameters for simulating communication with the device to access the device status. synchronizing data of a plant network hierarchy and data of one or more registered devices, in a database in a device management system, to a simulation server; and executing, in a simulation mode, at least one function of the device management system via communicating with one or more simulated devices, while the device management system being not communicatively coupled to any physical control station configured to control one or more physical field devices for a real plant; introducing virtual parameters into the one or more simulated devices for simulation communication response codes and device statuses; simulating, for device configuration, i) configurable device parameters; ii) non-configurable device parameters; and iii) the device status, with the one or more simulated devices generated from one or more device description files in the plant network hierarchy in the simulation server for the one or more registered devices in the field device communication server in the device management system; and i) configurable device parameters; ii) non-configurable device parameters; and iii) the device status, with the one or more simulated devices generated from one or more device description files in the plant network hierarchy in the simulation server for the one or more registered devices in the field device communication server in the device management system; and executing parallel communications from a communication request handling component in the field device communication server to the one or more simulated devices in the plant network hierarchy in the simulation server simultaneously, wherein the parallel communications comprise sending communication requests from the communication request handling component to the one or more simulated devices in the plant network-hierarchy in the simulation server; wherein simulating the device status comprises: responding, by the simulated device, to a communication request from the communication request handling component with communication response data by using the virtual parameters for simulating communication with the device to access the device status.