why do you use: jbpmSession.beginTransaction(); ? the JbpmSession is deprecated and superseded by the JbpmContext. The JbpmContext begins and ends the transaction for you as long as you close() it. It also has methods to retrieve the named sessions (GraphSession, TaskMgmtSession, etc). You should not be using JbpmSession at all. By the way, did you deploy your process definition before creating instances? View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3972668#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...