A system and method for enhancing performance of a business process execution engine, utilizing a database, a cache, and a lock management system operating in cache. The lock management system, upon receiving a request for a stored business process instance, determines by accessing the cache whether stored business process instance is locked and if the lock is expired. The stored business process object is served to the business process execution engine if it is not locked or the lock is expired. The lock functionality is implemented by writing, rewriting, and/or erasing a companion lock object stored in the cache such that no database access is required to determine whether a stored business process instance is locked.