JBPM JPDL Architecture/Design

[iventer]

I'm currently doing proof of concept work for a government agency for workflow implementation.
What we are considering doing is having a workflow farm for want of a better word. Where all their current applications that require workflow would hook into.
In this model the workflow engine app would have the schema where all workflow process definitions are deployed to for all the client applications. The work flow engine app would be fronted with a stateless session ejb (SLSB) which the client apps would user for interface.
Are there any potential pittfalls for this kind of a design. I'm very new to jBPM so there are probably things that i have'nt considered that would lead me to sway away from this kind of solution.
One of the main concerns is that the jbpm schema is a black box and if something went wrong there it could have bad consequences for all applications using workflow. Other issues would be around upgrading from one version of jbpm to another. Though these 2 concerns would be a problem for any design i'm just trying to findout if what i propose could maybe be done better.

All responses welome.

[kukeltje]

Are there any potential pittfalls for this kind of a design.

Not more or less than with other comparable solutions. Just keep in mind that if you want to run actions, the needed classes are also on that system or use an esb to run them remotely on yet another system.

Embedding the engine in each app and sharing a database is also possible... You do not *have* to use it as a standalone system like you need to with other vendors