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 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.