US Patent 7725702 Starting point configuration determination for complex configurable systems

A single starting point configuration for a complex, configurable system, is determined by collecting machine-reported data from a configurable system; obtaining information regarding the configurable system from one or more document applications external to the configurable system; merging the machine-reported data and the external document application data to produce a proposed configuration starting point; creating a user-readable actual starting point configuration according to the merged data; receiving a system configuration change description; receiving a proposed final system configuration; and verifying that the system configuration changes applied to the actual starting point configuration yields the proposed final system configuration.