In an autonomic management method for self-configuring a subject entity in a data processing system, the subject entity retrieves, from a set of rules published by an authority entity, one or more rules corresponding at least one category of the subject entity. Each rule defines a desired state for a category, and at least one retrieved rule includes at least one formal parameter defining a correlation with at least one further category. For each retrieved rule, the subject entity resolves each formal parameter included in the retrieved rule by associating each further category specified in the formal parameter with at least one further subject entity belonging to the further category. The subject entity also applies the retrieved rule to configure the subject entity according to the desired state specified in the retrieved rule.