Efehn,

I have had similar issues in the past. Is this error displaying in the Package and Deploy tool before clicking finish? If you edit the workflow and open the start configuration is there a smartobject in the reference? Sometimes I have to deploy an application more than once to make it work. I have also found if there is any slight difference between a smartobject in one environment to the other the deploy will fail or have errors. This could be as simple as the column type in one smartobject being a varchar(10) and the same column in the other smartobject being a varchar(5).

In the package and deploy tool on the first screen where you choose the package that you are going to deploy I have unchecked the box that says "Continue deploying packaged items if one or more items cannot be deployed." This allows me to correct any bugs before a package is deployed. I also have the box checked that performs a full analysis to determine if the packaged items exist on the server. This will often show me smartobject errors before I deploy and it gives me a chance to fix it. 

Last but not least and if all else fails I will Compare the smartobjects from each environment side by side and see if I notice any slight difference between them.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions let me know. If you can send a screenshot of the error it might help as well.

Thanks,

Bryan Peters