Architecture-independent process control

A computer-implemented process control system for operating process plants comprises control modules 220 that are decoupled from the communications (I/O) architecture of the process plants using signal objects 230. This decoupling is effected by using the signal objects 230 to manage at least part of the communication between the control modules and field devices 240. Signal objects 230 may convert between protocols used by control modules 220 and field devices 240, thus decoupling the control modules 220 from the I/O architecture. Another aspect of the invention comprises associating a generic shadow block with the control module, receiving at the controller, data describing a field device, and configuring the generic shadow block to mimic the operation of a function block of the field device based upon the received description data. The signal objects and/or shadow blocks provide an interface between the modules of the control system, optionally abstracting the modules, performing data conversion or data transformation.