Patent ID: 7984011

Claim:
A computer readable storage medium containing instructions for processing a change in a content of a plurality of policies specified so that contents of the policies do not conflict with each other, wherein the instructions, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to execute: storing a changeable scope and an out-of-group changeable scope for each of the policies grouped into groups in a first storage unit, the changeable scope indicating a scope where a policy content is changeable without causing a conflict with any other policies and the out-of-group changeable scope indicating a scope where a content of a policy is changeable without causing a conflict with any other policies belonging to groups other than the one to which such a policy belongs; and determining whether a policy content accepted as a change target of a predetermined policy is within the changeable scope of the predetermined policy, the changeable scope being stored in the storing of the changeable scope, and whether the policy content accepted as the change target of the predetermined policy is within the out-of-group changeable scope of the predetermined policy, the out-of-group changeable scope being stored in the storing of the changeable scope.