Nevermind, I looked at my test code again and discovered I was creating the configuration using ParseXml call and not getInstance and the XML for the configuration did not have any services. Once I used getInstance it used the jbpm.cfg.xml that was in the path and created the DefaultAuthenticationService which just holds on to the actor that I was setting. This is the behavior that I was looking for. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4018369#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...