Business process management (BPM) – while also its own independent practice / school of thought – is an application of technology that is served by many products, not the least of which is jBPM. The best definition of BPM that I've found is: "Business Process Management (BPM) is the concept of shepherding work items through a multi-step process. The items are identified and tracked as they move through each step, with either specified people or applications processing the information. The process flow is determined by process logic and the applications (or processes) play virtually no role in determining where the messages are sent.".