UNIVERSAL SCHEMA FOR REPRESENTING MANAGEMENT POLICY

A computer-readable storage medium has a data structure stored thereon for constructing expressions representing software configurations to be applied to software. The data structure includes a first data field including data identifying a name of software setting for the application. A second data field includes data representing an assertion portion of an policy rule for configuring the configurations identified in the first data field to be applied to the software. The data structure also includes a third data field storing data representing an action portion of the policy rule. The second data field and the third data field form the policy rule. A fourth data field stores metadata describing the policy rule represented by the first data field, the second data field, and the third data field.