The present invention provides a technique for the development of a software-based business solution using blueprint. A blueprint is a collection of artifacts that relate to an enterprise, and to the processes that an enterprise may perform. The blueprint may contain artifacts describing general business goals for a particular type of enterprise (e.g., a transportation company), as well as descriptions of processes typically performed by such an enterprise. The descriptions may provide sufficient detail to enable traceability between elements of the blueprint in the event of changes. The blueprint may be customized to fit a particular enterprise, and may be used as a basis to select and/or create software component, combine components into software applications, and deploy the applications on an infrastructure.