1. At a computer system, a method of generating an abstract service description that describes a network-based service, the method comprising: an act of accessing a service type and corresponding service configuration for implementing a service in accordance with a specified programming model, the service type including compiled source code; an act of parsing the service type and corresponding service configuration to identify description information, the description information describing the service based on the specified programming model; and an act of creating a service description tree for the service based on the identified description information, the format of the service description tree being independent of any programming model, the service description tree being consumable such that one or more other transform modules can consume the service description tree to create additional representations of the service in other formats.