If you take a look at the initializeVariables method, it actually does copy across the variables locally, but with a null value. Basically, the validation won't ever work because it doesn't take null values into account, and a null value is always copied acrossed to the local task instance, even if the variable is not readable. if (variableAccesses!=null) { | Iterator iter = variableAccesses.iterator(); | while (iter.hasNext()) { | VariableAccess variableAccess = (VariableAccess) iter.next(); | String mappedName = variableAccess.getMappedName(); | if (variableAccess.isReadable()) { | String variableName = variableAccess.getVariableName(); | Object value = contextInstance.getVariable(variableName, token); | log.debug("creating task instance variable '"+mappedName+"' from process variable '"+variableName+"', value '"+value+"'"); | taskInstance.setVariableLocally(mappedName, value); | } else { | log.debug("creating task instance local variable '"+mappedName+"'. initializing with null value."); | taskInstance.setVariableLocally(mappedName, null); | } | } | } Note the "else" block: else { | log.debug("creating task instance local variable '"+mappedName+"'. initializing with null value."); | taskInstance.setVariableLocally(mappedName, null); | } | Please correct me if I'm mistaken, as I just took a quick look. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4084136#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...