It seems that it has something to do with: contextInstance.setVariable("reason", "i met my deadline"); when I comment this line, it will work as expected. I get the contextInstance via: ContextInstance contextInstance = processInstance.getContextInstance(); Does someone know the problem? Regards, Stefan View the original post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4227982#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...