1. At a computer system, the computer system including a repository storing models that describe intended application behavior, executive services for refining models so that drivers can implement model related commands on applications, driver services for implementing model related commands for applications, a method for managing the lifecycle of a software application, the method comprising: an act of receiving an application model reference along with a software lifecycle command, the application model reference referring to an application model, the software lifecycle command indicating a software lifecycle transition that is to be applied to a distributed application based on the referenced application model; an act of utilizing the application model reference to access the referenced application model, the referenced application model including a lifecycle model reference referring to a lifecycle model and including a lifecycle state attribute configured to store a lifecycle state value indicating the lifecycle state of a distributed application based on the application model; an act of utilizing the lifecycle model reference to access the referenced lifecycle model, the referenced lifecycle model defining possible lifecycle state values for the lifecycle state attribute of the application model and defining transitions that cause lifecycle state values to change, each defined transition referencing a command model that describes how to implement the defined transition; an act of activating software lifecycle activities based on the referenced lifecycle model; an act of accessing the current state value from the lifecycle state attribute, the current state value representing the current lifecycle state of a distributed application based on the application model; and an act of referring to the software lifecycle activities to determine if the distributed application can transition from the current lifecycle state to a new lifecycle state in accordance with the lifecycle transition indicated in the software lifecycle command.