Methods and apparatus operate in a computer system to manage initiation and operation of plug-in modules providing plug-in services. The plug-in manager obtains identities of a plurality of plug-in modules and retrieves a dependency list indicating respective plug-in services provided by, and required by, each plug-in module identified in the identities of the plug-in modules. The plug-in manager then calculates a plug-in initiation order based upon the dependency list indicating respective plug-in services provided by, and required by, each plug-in module. The plug-in manager then initiates service operation of plug-in modules according to the plug-in initiation order, such that if a first plug-in module provides a service required by a second plug-in module, the first plug-in module is initiated such that the service provided by the first plug-in module is available to the second plug-in module when required by the second plug-in module. In addition, the plug-in manager can operate a wait state operation within plug-in modules that provide services that depend upon each other in order to avoid service deadlocked situations.