The Puzzle

The configuration of a single system is just one piece in a much larger puzzle. There should be a way to use dynamic dependency analysis to expose Paul Anderson's so-called aspects: all the configuration elements of an application or subsystem on one or more computing devices that contribute to correct behavior. For all but the most rudimentary systems, it is likely impossible to enumerate the configuration state space that produces "good", "bad", or even "acceptable" behavior. So what are our options?