1. A method for managing a software application, comprising: receiving an abstract API command to perform a life cycle operation (LCO) on a target system, wherein the LCO identifies the software application, wherein the software application is associated with a software application schema, and wherein the target system is associated with a platform independent registry, determining whether the LCO is compatible with the target system using the software application schema and the platform independent registry, wherein the LCO is compatible with the target system; mapping the abstract APT command to an operating system (OS)-specific command for performing the LCO, wherein the OS-specific command is associated with an OS executing on the target system; executing the OS-specific API command to perform the LCO on the target system to obtain a result; and updating the platform independent registry based on the result.