A system and method is described for generating a test bed that is useful in developing, testing and/or supporting the use of software, such as software used for managing IT processes and/or monitoring equipment in an enterprise network. The system and method operates by processing a manifest to generate an instance space model of a computer network, wherein the manifest refers to a type space model of a computer network and includes an encoding that conveys parameters that are used to inflate the type space model of the computer network into the instance space model of the computer network. The type space model may comprise an object-relational directed graph that describes a plurality of potential directed graph instances and the instance space model may comprise one of the plurality of potential directed graph instances.