1. A computer program product tangibly embodied in computer-readable medium for enabling communication with a status management component of a computer system, the computer program product comprising instructions stored in a computer-readable medium that, when executed, perform operations comprising providing a status adapter to a processing runtime environment for use in accessing a status management runtime environment, wherein: the processing runtime environment includes data object node instances resident in computer memory and enables access to persistent storage for data object node instances, each data object node instance including values for variables and actions capable of being performed by the data object node instance; the status management runtime environment is configured to provide status-related information; and the status adapter is configured to 1) accept input from the processing runtime environment, 2) provide, to the status management runtime environment, the input in a form that the status management runtime environment is able to use, 3) receive, from the status management runtime environment, an output including status-related information, and 4) provide, to the processing runtime environment, the output in a form that the processing runtime environment is able to use.