Patent ID: 7818328

Claim:
A method comprising: issuing, by a first process, a request for at least one object stored in a first configuration repository, wherein the first process comprises an automated test tool; receiving, by a second process, the request for the at least one object stored in the first configuration repository, wherein the second process comprises a software development tool, the at least one object is stored in the first configuration repository in a normalized format, and the first configuration repository is under the control of the second process, retrieving one or more records from the first configuration repository, wherein an application program interface (API) is configured to retrieve the one or more records; constructing a hierarchical tree of nodes; generating a representation of the requested at least one object using the hierarchical tree of nodes; issuing a response to the request for the at least one object stored in the first configuration repository, the response comprising the representation of the requested at least one object; retrieving the at least one object from the first configuration repository, wherein the first process uses the response to retrieve the at least one object; and synchronizing the automatic test tool with a second configuration repository, wherein the synchronizing comprises storing the at least one object in the second configuration repository, the second configuration repository is under control of the first process, and the first process is configured to use the at least one object from the second configuration repository to test an application.