Patent ID: 8527889

Claim:
A non-transitory computer readable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein that is configured to direct the operation of a processor to perform a method when executed, said method comprising: employing a service management system to determine relationships between a subscriber and services and end points associated therewith, wherein each of said services is defined as said ones of said end points that assume roles based on at least one of capabilities and attributes of said ones of said end points, and each of said roles reveals actions to be taken with respect to each of said end points to perform each of said service and defines functions, alerts, and key-value pairs of interest for each of said ones of said end points to perform said actions; and generating a user interface that provides a view, based on said relationships, of at least one of: one of said services defined as said ones of said end points that play said roles in said one of said services, and one of said end points defined as ones of said services in which said one of said end points plays a role; and using a service definition to specify key-value pairs to collect from said end points based on said roles and use said key-value pairs to determine whether and how a given user interface element should be shown in said user interface.