Function answers the question --- what is being done?Technique answers the question -- how something being done?
Application answers the question --- what is the problem being solved?
ExamplesBusiness Activity Monitoring (BAM) is an application type, it solves the problem of controlling the business activities in order to optimize the business, deal with exceptions etc...Business Rules are type of technique --- which can be used to infer facts from other facts or rules (inference rules) , or to determine action when event occurs and condition is satisfied (ECA rules) and more (there are at least half a dozen types of rules, which are techniques to do something).Event Processing is really a set of functions which does what the name indicates -- process events --- processing can be filtering, transforming, enriching, routing, detect patterns, deriving and some more.
RuleXpress is a repository-based tool that can be used offline or in a multi-user environment. Models are stored in a central repository and can be checked out to a local copy and then merged back. Within the tool the key organizing principle is that of a community - a group of people who share the same understanding about their vocabulary and rules. Within this you can have projects but the focus of the tool is on the activity of vocabulary/rule management as an ongoing task. The key activities are to manage vocabulary and rules or, more specifically terms, fact model, rules, decision tables and rule groups.