Thank you Ronald, In a NetBeans project I reused the configuration files jbpm.cfg.xml and jbpm.hiernate.xml coming from the <jbpm_4_2>\install\generated\cfg folder (I put them at the root of my source code). Of course, I added the required jars. My main method looks like this: ProcessEngine processEngine = new Configuration().buildProcessEngine(); | RepositoryService repoService = processEngine.getRepositoryService(); | ExecutionService executionService = processEngine.getExecutionService(); | | NewDeployment deployment = repoService.createDeployment().addResourceFromClasspath("process.jpdl.xml"); | deployment.deploy(); | executionService.startProcessInstanceByKey("helloWorld"); As you can see in the code, I used the process.jpdl.xml process definition file (also in the classpath). And before running it, I executed a HSQLDB server instance by running the Ant task start.hsqldb.server from <jbpm_4_2>\install. And it works! I also implement a custom activity (and use it in the process) in Groovy language by implementing ExternalActivityBehaviour, in order to invoke a remote service also in Groovy. This service is even running as a script in the Groovy console using the XML-RPC Groovy module. Best regards, Bertrand. "kukeltje" wrote : There is a 'default' cfg in jbpm that is 'minimal´ If you want less, you have to describe in detail what functionality of jBPM you do not want to use (there is not much difference in using jBPM in a webapp or standalone app) | | Regarding the database, that is totally up to you to decide. View the original post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4267354#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...