Business processes have two types of communication models: synchronous and asynchronous communication models.

For a synchronous communication model, a response message (in the format defined in the reply activity) is returned to the service requester that invoked the business process.

For an asynchronous communication model, only the processing is returned (no response message is returned) to the service requester that invoked the business process.

The communication model is defined in the Receive Activity dialog box when a business process is defined in the development environment. The following figure shows differences in the communication models of a business process.

Figure 3-12 Differences in the communication models of a business process

For details about the Receive Activity dialog box, see 1.4.7 Receive Activity dialog box in the Service Platform Reference Guide.