Hi, My first bpmn2 workflow. With this the important part of the bpmn2 xml definition, transformationTest.bpmn2. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <definitions id="Definition" targetNamespace="http://www.jboss.org/drools" typeLanguage="http://www.java.com/javaTypes" expressionLanguage="http://www.mvel.org/2.0" xmlns="http://www.omg.org/spec/BPMN/20100524/MODEL" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xs:schemaLocation="http://www.omg.org/spec/BPMN/20100524/MODEL BPMN20.xsd" xmlns:bpmndi="http://www.omg.org/spec/BPMN/20100524/DI" xmlns:dc="http://www.omg.org/spec/DD/20100524/DC" xmlns:di="http://www.omg.org/spec/DD/20100524/DI" xmlns:tns="http://www.jboss.org/drools"> <itemDefinition id="_ETLGroupItem" structureRef="com.example.model.impl.ETLGroupImpl" /> <process processType="Private" isExecutable="true" id="Test" name="Test Process" > <!-- process variables --> <property id="ETLGroup" itemSubjectRef="_ETLGroupItem"/> <!-- nodes --> <startEvent id="_1" name="StartProcess" /> <task id="_2" name="ETLGroup" tns:taskName="ETLGroup" > <ioSpecification> <inputSet> </inputSet> <outputSet> </outputSet> </ioSpecification> </task> <endEvent id="_3" name="End" > <terminateEventDefinition/> </endEvent> <!-- connections --> <sequenceFlow id="_1-_2" sourceRef="_1" targetRef="_2" /> <sequenceFlow id="_2-_3" sourceRef="_2" targetRef="_3" /> </process> I have this test case @Before public void setUp() throws Exception { KnowledgeBuilder kb = KnowledgeBuilderFactory.newKnowledgeBuilder(); kb.add(ResourceFactory.newClassPathResource("transformationTest.bpmn2"), ResourceType.BPMN2); if (kb.hasErrors()) { throw new RuntimeException(kb.getErrors().toString()); } KnowledgeBaseConfiguration configuration = KnowledgeBaseFactory.newKnowledgeBaseConfiguration(); configuration.setProperty("drools.workDefinitions", "WorkDefinitions.conf etlgroup.conf"); KnowledgeBase knowledgeBase = KnowledgeBaseFactory.newKnowledgeBase(configuration); knowledgeBase.addKnowledgePackages(kb.getKnowledgePackages()); session = knowledgeBase.newStatefulKnowledgeSession(); TrackingProcessEventListener trackingprocel = new TrackingProcessEventListener(); session.addEventListener(trackingprocel); session.getWorkItemManager().registerWorkItemHandler("ETLGroup", new ETLGroupWorkItemHandler()); WorkflowLoader wrkflwLdr = new WorkflowLoader(); etlGroup = wrkflwLdr.loadETLGroup("etlGroup", "/home/david/workspace/EDMEngine/META-INF/content.xml"); } @Test public void testSessionRun() { Map<String, Object> parameterMap = new HashMap<String, Object>(); parameterMap.put("ETLGroup", etlGroup); session.insert(etlGroup); ProcessInstance processInstance = session.startProcess("Test", parameterMap); session.insert(processInstance); session.fireAllRules(); } I have this work item handler public class ETLGroupWorkItemHandler implements WorkItemHandler { private ETLGroupService service = null; @Override public void executeWorkItem(WorkItem workItem, WorkItemManager manager) { ETLGroup etlGrp = (ETLGroup) workItem.getParameter("ETLGroup"); ... etlGroup in the @Before section is not null but etlGrp is always null? I must have missed something, but cannot see what it is. Can someone point it out to me? Thx. David