State machines can be a valuable component in a broad range of business applications. Typically, state machines are translated into an executable program using a procedural language. A state machine program in a procedural language is useful for simple applications. However, as a result of the complexity of business applications, state machines are often realized in the Unified Modeling Language (UML) to enable business application modeling.
State machines that are employed in business applications confront situations that are not issues in simpler environments. In a business application there may be many simultaneous instances of a state machine, thus ensuring that incoming events are directed to the appropriate state machine instance is not simple. Given the context of multi-protocol service-based architectures in which business application state machines exist, flexible interfaces therein are useful for facilitating an implementation that can quickly respond to changes in the performance characteristics and constraints of the business application. Further, in a business application there are timeout and alarm conditions that should be taken into account by the state machine program.