the reason is simple, well, it was a few years back. There is a start node. Someone/thing starts the process, so if there is a task in the start node, that task was *assumed* to be for that person. If someone just starts the process, and the first task is for someone else, leave the start node empty. This reasoning might not be that obvious, though it is valid. This might change in jBPM 4 however. The fact that it is invoked (how do ypou see that from this log btw...) does not mean the result is used. anonymous wrote : I would have, but trying to extract a 'unit test' from hundreds lines of an application wasn't really practical. You got the assignmenthandler, part of the processdefinition out of those hundreds of lines of code didn't you? Making a runnable unit test out of it is only 30 minutes extra work. And what is more important, it is much easier for *us*, the ones prroviding support to make sure we are nut hunting ghosts because people make typos when doing partial cutting/pasting etc.... And if it seems to be a real problem, it is easier for us to reproduce....... So... all things considered, it is better to do. btw, why do you do a leave node in an assignment handler? That is realy wrong. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4194450#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...