1. An element manager operating method comprising: discovering that a network managed by the element manager comprises a network element, the network element storing a set of values describing a configuration of the network element; in response to the discovering, automatically retrieving the set of values by automatically retrieving three or more subsets of the set of values from the network element in three or more respective, different stages, wherein the number of subsets equals the number of stages and one subset is retrieved during each stage; and interrupting retrieving of the three or more subsets of the set of values between each of the three or more respective, different stages to retrieve configuration values from one or more other network elements besides the network element in the network; scheduling the retrieving of the set of values associated with one of the stages independent of schedules of the other stages of the retrieving of the set of values; and discovering the network elements based either on information received from other network elements of the network or information received from the network elements.