An arrangement is proposed for creating and executing human-machine interface (HMI) applications in various heterogeneous computing and communication environments. The arrangement includes an engineering system for designing HMI applications based upon a library of known HMI elements, a runtime system for determining an optimum configuration for executing the designed HMI applications and a knowledge repository that communicates with both the engineering system and the runtime system. The knowledge repository stores information related to various ones of the known HMI elements, as well as information created by application developers and information generated during execution of an HMI application by the runtime system. Thus, the knowledge repository can interact with the engineering system for updating information regarding selected elements and interacting with the runtime system to collect execution information for use in subsequent application developments.