A computer program is provided for developing a component based software package. The program includes a data component that stores, retrieves and manipulates data utilizing a plurality of functions. Also provided is an adapter component that transmits and receives data to/from the data component. A business component is included that serves as a data cache and includes logic for manipulating the data. A controller component is also included which is adapted to handle events generated by a user utilizing the business component to cache data and the adapter component to ultimately persist data to a data repository.