Methods and systems consistent with certain aspects related to the present invention provide a dynamic service delivery system based on a capability to provide services through a distributed system using qualitative and quantitative Quality of Service (QoS) attributes. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a method for providing a service that includes collecting capability information reflecting a current operating condition of a compute resource and determining a platform capability and a measurable capability value for a depletion-oriented characteristic of the compute resource based on the collected capability information. Based on at least one of the platform capability and the measurable capability value; a capability value for the compute resource is determined and this value is provided to a provision manager that determines whether the compute resource is worthy of being an available resource in the distributed system based on the capability value. Additionally, the provision manager may determine which of a plurality of services provided by compute resources is more capable of handling a service request based on service capability values corresponding to platform capabilities and/or the depletion-oriented characteristics of each of the compute resources.