1. Does jBPM provide any role - based access control ? How ? In what way ?
Access control to what? Remember, jBPM5 is a framework with some tools around it. So I'm not sure if you are talking about the framework itself, Guvnor, the process editor, the eclipse plugin, the jbpm-console or what...
7.Can an administrator drill down from high level workflows through to the low level process or even rules? In what way ?
No.
9.Can the deployment(say deployment of assets like flows , rules ) be automated via a continuous integration facility, e.g. via Ant, Maven, Hudson?
It depends in your solution. For example, if you are using Guvnor as the repository and jBPM-Console as the runtime environment, then you can deploy your processes using Guvnor. If you are using your own runtime and maintaining your assets in your own repository, you need to make this integration. You can read more about Drools' Knowledge Agent to see how part of this integration can be achieved.
10.Does jBPM support Service Component Architecture (SCA) and XML Process Definition Language (XPDL) ?
Not sure about SCA, but XPDL is not supported. The only process definition language supported by jBPM is BPMN2.
11.Does jBPM support integration with Visio/MS Office in order to have a technology agnostic repository of workflows?
jBPM5 supports BPMN2 standard (with some extensions). I'm not saying it supports 100% BPMN2, but its goal is to run BPMN2 processes. If you can create BPMN2 processes that include the extensions needed by jBPM using other tools, then you can run those processes in jBPM5.
12.Can Rules be modified at run-time ?
Yes. Read about Drools' Knowledge Agent.
15. How does the interaction between process, service and data tiers occur ? Which protocols are used ?
Read about WorkItems (aka Task Nodes) and WorkItemHandlers
17. Does the IDE provide seamless views into DBMS , ERPs ? If yes , how ?
No. Unles you are using Eclipse plugin along with some other plugins that allow you to do that ;)
18. Does the IDE provide a data-driven view in order to model process data focus on data processing?
No AFAIK.
19. Does the IDE provide visual development capabilities? Specially features beyond the simple process modeling.
You have 2 IDEs: Eclipse plugin and process-designer (integrated in Guvnor). Both IDEs are BPMN2 designers. Nothing more, nothing less :)
20. Can I&AM systems be integrated? If yes, which?
Nothing out of the box.