Patent ID: 7707587

Claim:
A system, comprising: a scheduler; a set of agents; a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: submit, by the scheduler, a set of work units for execution according to a predefined plan, wherein the scheduler and the set of agents are comprised in a central scheduling application; for each work unit in the set of work units, identify, by the scheduler a descriptor associated with each work unit, wherein the descriptor identifies an external service within a set of external services that is to execute the work unit and wherein the descriptor further comprises an indication of an agent in the set of agents that is associated with the work unit; send, by the scheduler, a request of execution of the work unit to the agent, wherein the request of execution comprises an indication of the descriptor; retrieve, by the agent, an interface document of the external service; build, by the agent, a request message for the work unit according to the interface document; and send, by the agent, the request message to the external service to cause invocation of the external service in response to the request of execution.