System and method for managing hierarchically related software components

A system for managing hierarchically related software components, comprising:

• a plurality of software components;
• one or more software component descriptors containing information about the software components;
• one or more aggregate descriptors containing information about the software components or aggregates of the software components;
• a component hierarchy of hierarchical interrelationships between the software components and aggregates of software components;
• and
• logic for managing lifecycles, access controls, interrelationships and versioning of software components to maintain the consistency of the component hierarchy.

A computer programming product for managing hierarchically related software components, comprising:

• a memory;
• a software component descriptor, stored on the memory, containing information about a software component;
• one or more aggregate descriptors, stored on the memory, containing information about a set of related software components or aggregates of software components;
• logic, stored on the memory, for defining hierarchical interrelationships between software components and aggregates of software components to produce a component hierarchy;
• and
• logic, stored on the memory, for managing lifecycles, access controls, interrelationships and versioning of software components to maintain the consistency of the component hierarchy.