Abstract: The method of the invention enables an application program to recover feature information regarding a managed entity without having any predefined knowledge regarding the managed entity. The method employs a database that is operated by a database management program which includes data structures that define each of plural managed entities and each management interface associated therewith. A "managed entity" is a data structure that lists all "management interfaces" present in a device that is to be utilized by a processor. A "management interface" is a data structure that includes one or more procedures for accessing a device and obtaining information regarding the device and a "proxy management interface" is a data structure that is established to store previously retrieved feature data. All devices with a same feature can be accessed by an identical management interface procedure.