Techniques for constructing change plans from one or more component interactions are provided. For example, a computer-implemented technique includes observing at least one interaction between two or more components of at least one distributed computing system, consolidating the at least one interaction into at least one interaction pattern, and using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan useable for managing the at least one distributed computing system. In another computer-implemented technique, a partial order of two or more changes is determined from at least one component interaction, and is automatically transformed into at least one ordered task, wherein the at least one ordered task is linked by at least one temporal ordering constraint, and is used to generate at least one change plan useable for managing the distributed computing system is generated, wherein the change plan is based on at least one requested change.