For a while, we thought that SOA vs. BPM debate had been laid to rest. But as is the case with most theological disagreements, they never go away, they just hibernate. So after the latest round of strife, we updated our BPM+SOA pattern white paper ("Preserving IT Investments with SOA+BPM Coordination") and it's undergoing final edits. Here's a preview:

Some adherents from the BPM community and some from the SOA community want to disprove each others’ software development approach and substitute their own. The noise levels escalate at conferences, on blogs, and perhaps into the office hall. While one may emphasize either BPM or SOA approaches on a project-by-project basis, it is very effective to use both approaches together for maximum resiliency and to preserve your investment in technology. This paper examines methodology details and architecture constraints for each, BPM and SOA, and compares and contrasts them, showing, in the final analysis, that they represent a natural fit that should not be avoided but embraced.

Here is the link to download the full text.  Be forewarned, this is not a superficial assessment.

AAB