[en] One of the principle features of ASDEX Upgrade's recently commissioned Discharge Control System (DCS) is a shift in paradigm from a traditional programmed system to a highly flexible '' data driven '' one. Several properties, such as the allocation of application processes (APs) to controllers, the interconnection of APs through named signals, or the basic control cycle time are all defined as data, allowing to fine-tune the DCS performance to the requirements of a particular discharge. All data required by the DCS are laid down in a set of XML documents which APs request via HTTP from a configuration server before a discharge. The use of XML allows for easy parsing, structural validation through (XSD) schema and the ad-hoc generation of documentation, e.g. through XSL transformation to HTML. From the session leaders' point of view, the central input to the configuration process is the so-called Discharge Schedule (DS), which contains the reference trajectories that embody the envisaged discharge evolution. The DS is logically subdivided into segments which correspond to particular scenarios, (e.g. ramp-up, flat-top, slow shutdown, fast shutdown), and which are concatenated through transition conditions. We will present the DP in detail, together with editing, generation and validation tools (both for internal consistency and for compatibility with plant settings) and show how it is used to drive the behaviour of the ASDEX Upgrade Discharge Control System. (author)