7. The method of claim 1 , comprising: accumulating query fragments associated with the rule scope; accumulating query fragments associated with the desired state; and merging the accumulated query fragments into a query for applying the compliance rule to data corresponding to the IT infrastructure, wherein at least one query fragment, the query, or both the query and the at least one query fragment, includes the path expression for one of the identified paths.
10. The method of claim 7 , comprising: executing the query to apply the rule to data corresponding to the IT infrastructure to determine compliance of the IT infrastructure.