Abstract: Methods, systems and computer program products are provided for managing a smart card product by providing a plurality of generic definitions, at least a portion of which have a predefined relationship to others of the generic definitions, so as to provide a hierarchy of generic definitions. Generic definitions are selected from the plurality of generic definitions and associated with an instance of a card product definition so as to define characteristics of the smart card product associated with the instance of the card product definition. The selected generic definitions are populated with data associated with the smart card product so as to provide a hierarchy of instances of the generic definitions which define the characteristics of the smart card product. The smart card product is managed utilizing the hierarchy of instances of the generic definitions so as to provide the smart card product having the defined characteristics.