Patent ID: 7797403

Claim:
A distributed computing system comprising: a first computing environment associated with a first cooperating party, the first computing environment comprising a first computer and a second computer; a second computing environment associated with a second cooperating party, the second computing environment comprising a first computer and a second computer; the first computing environment configured to: operate, at least in part, via the first computer of the first computing environment, a first portion of a plurality of portions of a distributed business process server computing application; and operate, via the second computer of the first computing environment, a first configuration information management and deployment tool configured to automatically configure said first portion of the distributed business process server computing application in response to a desired change of a business process associated with the distributed business process server computing application initiated by the first cooperating party; and the second computing environment configured to: operate, via the first computer of the second computing environment, a second portion of the distributed business process server computing application and; operate, via the second computer of the second computing environment, a second configuration information management and deployment tool configured to automatically configure the second portion of the distributed business process server computing application in response to a request from the distributed business process server computing application of the first computing environment, wherein the request is indicative of the desired change of the business process initiated by the first cooperating party, wherein each of the first and second cooperating parties interacts directly with other cooperating parties and is configured to automatically and successfully test the desired change of the business process locally before communicating the request to the second cooperating party to either reject or accept and automatically configure the desired change of the business process and wherein the second cooperating party implements the desired changed at the first computer of the second computing environment when the request is accepted, and the second cooperating party does not implement the desired change when the request is rejected.