In this paper we use the cognitive psychology concept of schema to identify the set of properties that an adaptable system has to maintain when adapting to changed context and environment. Properties are described in terms of property specification patterns [15], [3] that describe solutions to commonly recurrent requirements. The methodology we propose in this paper, called AC-contract, starting from highlevel requirements identifies properties that should hold locally on single parts of the system. Then, these local properties are encoded in terms of contracts to be used at run-time to guarantee that the system will satisfy those properties despite changes in the context. Reflection is then used to deploy and execute the adaptable code satisfying identified contracts