Patent ID: 8195931

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a program memory for storing data; and a central processing unit operable to execute instructions associated with the data, wherein the central processing unit and the program memory cooperate, such that the apparatus is configured for: receiving change information for a configuration item associated with a system component; and processing the change information according to an information structure, comprising: a logical group associated with at least one of: the configuration item and the system component; change rule information for the configuration item; interrelationship information between the configuration item and a second configuration item; change rule information for the system component; interrelationship information between the configuration item and the system component; interrelationship information between the system component and a second system component; change rule information for the logical group; and interrelationship information between the logical group logical group, comprises a selected one of a group of activities, the group consisting of: (a) monitoring configuration changes to the logical group; (b) simulating a change to the configuration item according to the change information; and (c) using the information structure to configure one or more change controllers to control changes to the configuration item according to the change information.