Hi Ron,
If you want to signal a waiting execution after a period time. You could use timer like this.
<process name="TimerTransition" xmlns="http://jbpm.org/4.3/jpdl">
<start>
<transition to="guardedWait" />
</start>
<state name="guardedWait">
<transition name="go on" to="next step" />
<transition name="timeout" to="escalation">
<timer duedate="10 minutes" />
</transition>
</state>
<state name="next step" />
<state name="escalation" />
</process>
You could find more information in the developer guide.
http://docs.jboss.com/jbpm/v4/devguide/html_single/#timertransition