Patent ID: 8307297

Claim:
In a computing environment, a method of creating a new component definition from an existing component definition, for modeling changes to software during the lifecycle of the software, the method comprising: creating, by a developer, a component schema representing software at a development phase, the component schema defining a plurality of components including connection points of each component, wherein a first component of the plurality of components includes configuration parameters for a connection point of the first component including defining that one or more of the configuration parameters are further configurable; storing the component schema; after the development phase and during a configuration phase, accessing, by a configuration administrator, the component schema to generate a modified component schema; generating the modified component schema by modifying the one or more configuration parameters that are further configurable; storing the modified component schema; during a deployment phase of the software and prior to deploying the software from the modified component schema, comparing the modified component schema to the component schema to verify that the configuration parameters of the modified component schema as defined by the configuration administrator conform to the configuration parameters of the component schema as defined by the developer; collapsing the component schema and the modified component schema into a collapsed application system model by following a configured element and composition relationship to calculate final values for configuration parameters; mapping the collapsed application system model to a host system model, the host system model comprising modeled components, by mapping components of the application system model to components of the host system model; and determining that the final values of configuration parameters defined for components in the collapsed application system model conform to requirements of the components in the host system model to which it is mapped, and that the configuration of the host system model is suitable for execution of the application system as described by the application system model given the final values of configuration parameters on each component and the manner in which they are connected in the application system model; and providing an indication that the collapsed application system model conforms to requirements expressed in the host system model and that the host system model is suitable for execution of the collapsed system model given the final values of the configuration parameters of and connections between all the components therein.