A solution (200) for discovering inventory information in a data processing system is proposed. For this purpose, a corresponding discovery request is submitted (A1) to an inventory tool (200); the discovery request specifies a selected query pattern for the desired inventory information (for example, all the files included in a specific directory). Multiple providers (210)—such as of the interactive, cached or monitor type—are available for executing the required discovery operation. A predictive model (220) is associated with each provider; the models are used to estimate (A2,A3a,A3b-A4) the expected performance of the different providers for discovering the inventory information (according to the selected query pattern). In this way, it is possible to select (A5-A9) the provider, among the available ones, which is best suited for this purpose. The selected provider is then invoked (A10-A12) to discover the inventory information matching the selected query pattern. At the same time, the result of the discovery is used to refine (A13-A14) the models of the providers, so as to improve their accuracy.