Obviously creation of ProcessInstances involves the database. I've looked up the ProcessInstance constructor: public ProcessInstance(ProcessDefinition processDefinition, Map<String, Object> variables, String key) | { | [...] | // if this process instance is created in the context of a persistent operation | Services.assignId(this); | [...] | } | You are surely operating in the context of a persistent operation so this call to this static method of Services (I guess these are the services from the jbpm.cfg.xml) will do some Hibernate stuff. Since jBPM heavily relies on a database for everything (transaction safety, logging, ...) I would guess that it will be hard to work around that by other means than by crude hacks. Volker View the original post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4224595#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...