1. Apparatus, comprising: a processor; computer memory holding computer program instructions executed by the processor perform network management in association with a network management system, the computer program instructions operative to: generate and maintain a substantially real-time view of a network topology by continuously receiving status updates from network devices in a network being managed, at least one status update received in response to a programmatic command line interface query to a given one of the network devices; receive a corrective command, the corrective command having been automatically generated by the network management system in response to a fault occurrence in the network and that is proposed by the network management system to address the fault occurrence; select an algorithm from a set of algorithms associated with network management system (NMS) functions, each of the algorithms providing a distinct context-specific NMS operation, and wherein the algorithm selected is determined based on a type of the fault occurrence and the corrective command that has been generated; and analyze, using the algorithm so selected, the corrective command so received against the substantially real-time view of the network topology prior to the corrective command being deployed to address the fault occurrence to simulate a network response to executing the corrective command in the network.