A method for simplifying an extensible markup language (XML) schema, including: identifying data in an instance specification as variable or fixed, wherein the instance specification corresponds to a complex XML schema; determining a set of types including the variable data, wherein the set of types conforms to a structure of the complex XML schema; capturing the set of types as metadata annotations associated with the instance specification; and generating a simplified XML schema from the instance specification, wherein the simplified XML schema is stored on a memory device.