Patent ID: 8005876

Claim:
A method comprising: defining a plurality of translating references for an object; generating a common information model (CIM) with a processor of a system, the CIM comprising one or more functional object attributes of the object; generating a first instantiation of a user information model (UIM), the first instantiation of the UIM comprising one or more user-associated attributes of the object; interfacing with the CIM using the first instantiation of the UIM; translating the one or more user-associated attributes of the first instantiation of the UIM to the one or more functional object attributes of the CIM using the plurality of translating references; generating a second instantiation of the UIM; interfacing with the CIM using the second instantiation of the UIM; and translating one or more user-associated attributes of the second instantiation of the UIM to the one or more functional object attributes of the CIM using the plurality of translating references; the first instantiation of the UIM describing the user-associated attributes of the object in terms specific to a first management area and the second instantiation of the UIM describing the user-associated attributes of the object in terms specific to a second management area.