Designing business processes using distributed process flows

1. A method for executing business processes, said method comprising:

accessing a first business process comprising a process notification activity;

accessing a second business process comprising a notification wait activity for storing a notification received from the first business process;

receiving a first instance at the process notification activity of the first business process;

communicating a notification from the process notification activity of the first business process to the notification wait activity of the second business process;

sending a second instance to the notification wait activity of the second business process in response to communicating the notification from the process notification activity of the first business process to the notification wait activity of the second business process the notification comprising an interruption;

receiving the second instance at the notification wait activity of the second business process;

notifying the second instance of the second business process of the notification communicated from the first business process upon having reached the notification wait activity; and

sending the second instance though the second business process.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising holding the second instance at the notification wait activity until the notification arrives at the notification wait activity.

3. The method of claim 1 , comprising holding the notification at the notification wait activity until the second instance arrives at the notification wait activity.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first business process is associated with an external program.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said second business process is a polymorphic sub-process of said first business process.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said first business process and said second business process share a same interface, said interface defined by input and output arguments of the first business process and the notification wait activity.

7. A system for executing business processes, said system comprising:

a data repository operable to:

store a first business process comprising a process notification activity; and

store a second business process comprising a notification wait activity for storing a notification received from the first business process;

a plurality of modules coupled to the data repository and operable to:

receive a first instance at the process notification activity of the first business process; and

communicate a notification from the process notification activity of the first business process to the notification wait activity of the second business process;

send a second instance to the notification wait activity of the second business process in response to communicating the notification from the process notification activity of the first business process to the notification wait activity of the second business process the notification comprising an interruption,

receive the second instance at the notification wait activity of the second business process;

notify the second instance of the second business process of the notification communicated from the first business process upon having reached the notification wait activity; and

send the second instance through the second business process.

8. The system of claim 7 , the modules operable to hold the second instance at the notification wait activity until the notification arrives at the notification wait activity.

9. The system of claim 7 , the modules operable to hold the notification at the notification wait activity until the second instance arrives at wait activity.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the first business process is associated with an external program.