Patent ID: 8316344

Claim:
A software modeling system comprising at least one memory storing a software modeling tool and at least one processor executing the software modeling tool to perform operations to group process components, the operations comprising: processing at least one input identifying at least one group of process components, each group characterizing software that is independently operable and context-independent; and processing at least one input defining a plurality of deployment units, each deployment unit associated with at least one identified group of process components, wherein each process component is entirely included in exactly one deployment unit, each deployment unit corresponding to a hardware platform on which a process component is deployed; wherein each of the process components characterizes software implementing a respective and distinct business process, and each of the process components defines at least one respective service interface for interacting with other process components, wherein all communication and interaction between process components takes place through the respective interfaces of the process components, each service interface comprising at least one service operation, and each service operation belonging to exactly one process component and comprising a separately-callable function, wherein interaction between a first process component in a first deployment unit and a second process component in a second deployment unit external to the first deployment unit takes place through an incoming message to the first process component from the second process component in the second deployment unit through the respective service interfaces of the first and second process components, and interaction between the first process component and a third process component arranged in the same deployment unit takes place through business objects accessible to the first and third process components in the same deployment unit.