13. The method of claim 12 further comprising: determining if there is at least one unassigned attribute value in the attribute values of the network element to be deployed, and if so: defining at least one new entity category containing at least one new attribute definition that corresponds to the at least one unassigned attribute value.
13. The method of claim 12 further comprising: determining if there is at least one unassigned attribute value in the attribute values of the network element to be deployed, and if so: defining at least one new entity category containing at least one new attribute definition that corresponds to the at least one unassigned attribute value. 15. The method of claim 13 wherein the defining further comprises: creating, for each of the unassigned attribute values, an attribute definition; and storing, in the created attribute definition, the unassigned attribute value.