Based off example jBPM included in JBDS, run this as a JUnit: ********************************************************************************************************************** HashMap<String,Object> params = new HashMap<String, Object>(); params.put("AString", new String("AString_value")); params.put("AnotherString", new String("AnotherString_value")); // Extract a process definition from the processdefinition.xml file. ProcessDefinition processDefinition = ProcessDefinition.parseXmlResource("simple/processdefinition.xml"); // Create an instance of the process definition. ProcessInstance instance = new ProcessInstance(processDefinition, params); instance.getContextInstance().setVariable("userId", new String("userId_Value")); String var1 = (String)instance.getContextInstance().getVariables().get("userId"); assertEquals("Process Variable didn't match as expected", "userId_Value", var1); instance.setKey("MyKey"); // Uh-oh! This causes trouble String var2 = (String)instance.getContextInstance().getVariables().get("userId"); // same test that passed a moment ago... assertEquals("Process Variable didn't match as expected", "userId_Value", var2); **************************************************************************************************************************