BPEL has been submitted to OASIS for its consideration as an official OASIS specification. A technical committee conference call pertaining to BPEL is scheduled for Wednesday, according to the OASIS Web site.

BEA also offers its own Java Process Definition technology for defining processes. BPEL differs in that it is based on XML, is multiplatform and not confined to Java, according to Roth.

"The important thing is [BPEL is] not done yet and while we look at BPEL as a promising development, Oracle users are taking a huge risk by developing on BPEL 1.1 and getting locked into something that they think is standard but isn't," Roth said. The feature set could change, he said.

Nielsen, who departed BEA amid a series of high-level exits from the company, said he left over disagreements on direction. While he believed BEA should have focused on factors such as channels and products, the company was worried about earnings-per-share, according to Nielsen.

"They were playing defense instead of offense, in my opinion," Nielsen said.