Patent ID: 8312416

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: defining, with a computing system, one or more process components, each of the process components characterizing software implementing respective and distinct business processes and defining at least one process agent, each process agent enabling communications between a business object associated with the corresponding process component and a business object associated with any other process component; and defining, with the computing system, one or more Business Process Variant Types for at least one of the process components, wherein each Business Process Variant Type for a particular process component is associated with a set of process agents of the particular process component different from sets of process agents associated with other Business Process Variant Types for the particular process component, wherein selection of a particular process variant type causes the associated one or more process agents of the particular process variant type to be activated and causes any process agents not associated with the particular process variant type to be deactivated, wherein each Business Process Variant Type for a particular process component comprises a modeling entity defined, at least in part, by associated message choreographies belonging to different ones of the one or more Business Process Variant Types for at least one of the process components.