A method, an apparatus, and computer instructions are provided for a design pattern for automating service provisioning. Embodiments of the invention provide a catalog item management system that comprises a set of service and catalog item management functions that manage lifecycles of services and catalog items. Embodiments of the invention also provide an order fulfillment system that comprises a set of order, subscription, and service instance functions for managing orders, subscriptions, and service instances in order to provision and deprovision an application. In addition, embodiments of the invention provide a calendar reservation and scheduling system that presents a list of resource availabilities using an algorithm. Furthermore, embodiments of the invention provide a provisioning process that includes a process order method that initiates reservation of resources, provisioning, deprovisioning, and modification of services based on an order type.