Abstract: The invention provides a process-centric, scenario-driven business service assembly software environment that uses encapsulated, iconographic building blocks—each representing a discrete Web Service component to be executed within a business service—to logically depict service processes as well as complex relationships between these processes, their audiences, and means of deployment. Fundamental to the invention are an Interactive Flow Assembler, an Interactive Flow Engine, a design-time Service Manager, and an implicit XML-based data and process model. Business users employ the Interactive Flow Assembler to create online business services that are executed by the Interactive Flow Engine by chaining a series of logical business steps that codify business rules, collect data, and take actions.