Apparatus and method for providing a facility for managing versions and configurations of persistent and transient objects

A change management system for in response to received calls from an application independent of said change management system specifying and managing changes to an object and a plurality of groupings of a plurality of said object comprising, in combination:

• a version abstract machine including a first instruction set, said version abstract machine responsive to said received calls from said application to said first instruction set for specifying and managing evolution of said object as a version graph having a version graph name;
• a configuration abstract machine including a second instruction set, said configuration abstract machine responsive to said received calls from said application to said second instruction set for specifying and managing composition of each of said plurality of groupings of said plurality of said object as a configuration graph having a configuration graph name;
• and
• a processor machine, said processor machine responsive to said version abstract machine and said configuration abstract machine for executing said first instruction set and said second instruction set.