George Van Antwert writes about thinking of BPM as Topware.

And he differentiates between an application that embeds a workflow like an HR Performance Appraisal System, and a system that ties together multiple, potentially disparate systems into one larger deprtment wide or company wide business process(The TopWare).

So, the Topware essentially sits on top of your existing applications and coordinates the correct execution of your larger business.

Now, of course the Top ware could be a full blown very expensive BPM solution, or it could be a home grown SOA initiative.

Now, where do business rules and decisioning systems fit in? SOA architects might argue that the Decision Service is just another service, and I am interested in orchestration.

But, as I have argued many times in the past, managing business decisions in a digital enterprise is a very specialized activity and needs the full support of sophisticated business rules management systems.

So, to take this post to a logical conslusion, I would say the Business Decision Automation, Management systems like a BRMS would fall into the category of DecisionWare, along with other Decision Support Systems.