A method for management entity operations for use in a management entity, the management entity being a computer management entity, the method comprising: parsing, by the management entity, a request to collect data for an entity in a communications system, the parsing to produce a parsed request and dependency information related to the request, characterized in that: the request comprises a mandatory portion and an optional portion; and further comprising, validating the request to determine which dependencies are present in the request; generating, by the management entity, sets of model elements in accordance with context tokens and content tokens derived from the parsed request, the content tokens including extrinsic metadata and intrinsic metadata of the parsed request; generating a set of graphs by mapping content tokens to model elements; optimizing the set of graphs to produce an optimized model element graph; analyzing the model element graph in accordance with the dependency information; modifying the model element graph for each combination of dependency and dependency type in the dependency information; optimizing the modified model element graph after each dependency and dependency type combination generating, by the management entity, one or more XML schema definitions, XSDs, as a platform-neutral description of results of the request from the optimized model element graph; executing, by the management entity, the request to collect the data as requested in accordance with the one or more XSDs; and storing, by the management entity, the data as collected; wherein modifying the model element graph for each combination of dependency and dependency type in the dependency information comprises: performing a dependency analysis in accordance with the dependency and dependency type combination to produce a first list of dependencies, and adjusting the model element graph in accordance with the dependency and dependency type combination. parsing, by the management entity, a request to collect data for an entity in a communications system, the parsing to produce a parsed request and dependency information related to the request, characterized in that: the request comprises a mandatory portion and an optional portion; and further comprising, validating the request to determine which dependencies are present in the request; generating, by the management entity, sets of model elements in accordance with context tokens and content tokens derived from the parsed request, the content tokens including extrinsic metadata and intrinsic metadata of the parsed request; generating a set of graphs by mapping content tokens to model elements; optimizing the set of graphs to produce an optimized model element graph; analyzing the model element graph in accordance with the dependency information; modifying the model element graph for each combination of dependency and dependency type in the dependency information; optimizing the modified model element graph after each dependency and dependency type combination generating, by the management entity, one or more XML schema definitions, XSDs, as a platform-neutral description of results of the request from the optimized model element graph; executing, by the management entity, the request to collect the data as requested in accordance with the one or more XSDs; and storing, by the management entity, the data as collected; the request comprises a mandatory portion and an optional portion; and further comprising, validating the request to determine which dependencies are present in the request; generating, by the management entity, sets of model elements in accordance with context tokens and content tokens derived from the parsed request, the content tokens including extrinsic metadata and intrinsic metadata of the parsed request; generating a set of graphs by mapping content tokens to model elements; optimizing the set of graphs to produce an optimized model element graph; analyzing the model element graph in accordance with the dependency information; modifying the model element graph for each combination of dependency and dependency type in the dependency information; optimizing the modified model element graph after each dependency and dependency type combination generating, by the management entity, one or more XML schema definitions, XSDs, as a platform-neutral description of results of the request from the optimized model element graph; executing, by the management entity, the request to collect the data as requested in accordance with the one or more XSDs; and storing, by the management entity, the data as collected; wherein modifying the model element graph for each combination of dependency and dependency type in the dependency information comprises: performing a dependency analysis in accordance with the dependency and dependency type combination to produce a first list of dependencies, and adjusting the model element graph in accordance with the dependency and dependency type combination. performing a dependency analysis in accordance with the dependency and dependency type combination to produce a first list of dependencies, and adjusting the model element graph in accordance with the dependency and dependency type combination.