A strategy mechanism is disclosed, including at least one business program component and a strategy management component which, as a single executable program object, makes a plurality of at least two administration functions available to the at least one business program component. In at least one embodiment, the program code for implementing the administration functions is realized in the strategy management component in such a way that the at least one business program component itself need not contain any program code for realizing the administration functions. Further, the program code in the strategy management component is generically realized such that all business program components running in the software system can use the administration functions.