one or more core services at step 212 a determination is made by the controller 104 whether the first service indicates that a ready signal will be returned once the service is fully initialized when such a ready signal is required flow proceeds to step 214 wherein the controller 104 waits for the ready signal signifying completion of the initialization of the first sequence when no ready signal is anticipated or after such ready signal is received flow proceeds to step 216 at step 216 a determination is made whether any additional services remain in the sequence list for initialization when no additional services remain to be initialized by the controller 104 the synchronous startup method terminates when at least one additional service still requires startup prior to beginning document processing operations flow proceeds to step 218 whereupon the next service in the sequence is initialized it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that such sequence is suitably capable of being an infrastructure core or higher level service depending upon where in the startup sequence the service is located i e what prior initialized services the next service requires for initialization thus at step 218 the next sequential service is initialized by the controller 104 those skilled in the art will further appreciate that such a sequence is capable of depending from the first sequence thereby requiring the initialization of the first sequence the controller 104 then determines at step 220 whether the next service in the sequence indicates that a ready message.