Patent ID: 8250568

Claim:
A maintenance package for software maintenance of a first computer system, comprising: (a) a plurality of maintenance objects for performing one or more software maintenance operations on said first computer system, each said maintenance object including a respective script comprising a plurality of script instructions of a pre-defined script instruction set adapted for use by a script processing module and a respective sequence number, each said script being not independently executable without the script processing module, at least one said maintenance object containing a prerequisite field containing one or more prerequisites for executing the script, wherein not all said maintenance objects have the same at least one respective prerequisite, each said maintenance object being generated remotely from said first computer system and transmitted to said first computer system, wherein each said maintenance object causes the first computer system to: (i) if the maintenance object contains one or more prerequisites, determine if the one or more prerequisites have been met, wherein the at least one prerequisite allows at least one script to be executed out of sequence, and (ii) instruct the script processing module to compile and execute the script on the first computer system if all prerequisites, to the extent there are any, contained in the maintenance object have been met, wherein at least one said maintenance object includes at least one script instruction of said pre-defined script instruction set which, when executed with said script processing module on the first computer system, instructs the end user to manually perform an operation for maintaining said first computer system; and (b) tangible computer-readable storage media storing the maintenance package.