Patent ID: 8458713

Claim:
A method for constructing a computing environment comprising: providing a plurality of assets, each asset being a resource providing unit, wherein resources include at least one of computing resources, human resources, and premise resources; forming a plurality of entities, each entity of the plurality of entities comprising at least one asset and representing a logical grouping of assets, each grouping comprising assets necessary to support a definable segment of the computing environment; and constructing the computing environment using the plurality entities, wherein the computing environment defines an environment in which at least one of a series of stages of development of application software is performed, and wherein the computing environment includes a test environment, a development environment, or a production environment; wherein each entity of the plurality of entities is imposed upon one or more definable attributes and constraints, each attribute representing one or more threshold values defining a range of resources available to the entity and each constraint representing an environment specific or usage specific limitation not relating to a resource consumption level, wherein the constructing further comprises providing a plurality of linkages, wherein each of the plurality of linkages is configured for associating different ones of the plurality of entities, wherein each of the plurality of linkages is selected from one of a plurality of relationship types specifying rules for how assets are shared between the different ones of the plurality of entities based on the one of the plurality of relationship types, and wherein the rules for at least one of the plurality of linkages are further configured to limit sharing of the assets between the ones of the plurality of entities associated with the at least one of the plurality of linkages; wherein the plurality of relationship types comprises: a parent-child relationship that results in the resources provided by assets associated with a first of the different entities to be considered resources of a second of the different entities, wherein while the parent-child relationship exists, the first of the different entities is incapable of being separately included within the computing environment and is incapable of being separately combined as a child with another entity other than the second of the different entities.