Patent ID: 7620612

Claim:
A computer-implemented method in which a computer system accesses instructions from a storage medium for performing a system analysis, the computer executes the instructions to perform operations for the method comprising the steps of: representing, in the computer system, selected ones of the plurality of components of a first domain of a computer system model represented as a plurality of independent model domains; wherein each model domain represents selected ones of a plurality of hardware and software system components; representing select relationships of the components, in the computer system, wherein the relationships among the components are limited to direct relationships among adjacent ones of the representation of components of the first domain, wherein the first domain representation is available to a second domain of the plurality of independent model domains; wherein the representing components comprises creating at least one configuration non-specific representation of the selected components, wherein the non-specific representations are selected from the group consisting of: MSI_Element, UnitaryComputerSystem, NetworkConnection; and creating a single configuration non-specific representation of a relation along which the events propagate between adjacent ones of the selected components, wherein the representations of relations are selected from the group consisting of: LayeredOver, and ResidingOn; providing events occurring in the first domain to the second domain; providing a mapping between a plurality of causing events and a plurality of observable events occurring among the representation of components of the first domain and a plurality of observable events occurring among the components of the second domain, wherein the mapping is represented as a value associating each causing event with each observable event, and performing the system analysis of the computer system model based on the mapping of causing events and observable events.