What I'm trying to achieve (or figure out) is why the init method isn't being invoked when I call the testSLSBMethod. I assumed that because the init method has been annotated with a Factory annotation and the testVar component is initially null - that this would cause the init method (i.e. method annotated with the Factory annotation) to be invoked whenever one invokes any business method in the stateless session bean (in this case, testSLSBMethod in TestSLSBBean stateless session bean). Ultimately, my question is whether one can use the @Factory annotation within a stateless session bean. - and whether I'm using it incorrectly in my example. My understanding is that a method marked with the Factory annotation is called whenever the context variable that the Factory annotation references is null. Thanks! View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3973795#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...