1. A configuring method for managing appliances in a system on the basis of management rules defining at least one action to be executed by said system when at least one condition is fulfilled, said system comprising a rules engine intended to implement said management rules, the method comprising a configuring device: supplying semantic expressions of states and functions to a user interface; enabling a user, via the user interface, to define at least one management rule from at least one condition, on the basis of the semantic expressions of states, and at least one action, on the basis of the semantic expressions of functions; transcribing each management rule, defined semantically via the user interface, into instructions interpretable by the rules engine; wherein the configuring device: obtains a description of states in which each appliance in the system is able to be; obtains a description of functions that each appliance in the system is able to execute; and transcribes said descriptions of states and functions into respective semantic expressions for supplying said semantic expressions of states and functions to the user interface so that the user can understand.