Decisions in IBM Websphere ILOG BRMS

Transcription

1 Decisions in IBM Websphere ILOG BRMS Christian de Sainte Marie

2 IBM WebSphere ILOG BRMS Business Rule Management Systems (BRMS) make the development and maintenance of an application that uses business logic more efficient both for developers and for the business users of the applications With a BRMS, the business logic is externalized from the traditional code of an application in the form of business rules From a IBM business Software perspective, Group a business rule Lotus is a precise software statement that describes, constrains, or controls some aspect of your business From the IT perspective, business rules are a package of executable business policy statements that can be called from an application Business logic can be encapsulated as decision services in a BRMS, which the applications and processes can call IBM WebSpere ILOG JRules provides an environment for designing, developing, and deploying business rule applications

3 Architecture of a business rule application Architecte Developer Business analyst

4 Architecture of a business rule application Business analyst Policy manager Administrator Architect Developer Administrator

5 Architecture of a business rule application

6 Rulesets and decisions A ruleset is a stand-alone executable container that can be used by the rule engine It contains a set of rules and rule artifacts that will be executed by the rule engine. Rulesets interact with a calling application by means of input and output parameters A ruleset organizes and stores the rules that are related to a given business decision Rulesets can be deployed as decision services that can be accessed through a Web service

7 Designing a ruleset (decision) If the credit score of the borrower is less than 200, then reject the loan

8 Designing a ruleset (decision)

9 JRules rule artifacts

10 Decision tables and decision trees Decision tables and decision trees provide a concise view of a set of business rules in the form of a spreadsheet or a tree Spreadsheets and trees help you to navigate and manage large sets of business rules Decision tables are rules composed of rows and columns Each column in a decision table represents a condition or an action Each row in a decision table corresponds to a rule Decision tables make it easy to identify overlap or gaps in the rules Decision trees provide the same function, but are composed of branches that have a condition node as the root, and action nodes as the leaves With decision trees you can manage a large set of rules with some conditions in common, but not all Rule Studio maps decision table rows and decision tree branches to IRL rules at build time

11 IBM Websphere ILOG JRules decision tables

12 Condition columns IBM Software Group WebSphere software

13 Condition columns IBM Software Group WebSphere software

14 Action columns IBM Software Group WebSphere software If the state of the pickup branch of 'the current rental agreement' is New York and the customer's age of 'the current rental agreement' is at least 18 and less than 21 Then make it true that 'the current rental agreement' is rejected

15 Using predictive models in rules

16 Using predictive models in rules

17 Rule flows IBM Software Group WebSphere software A rule is designed to make a decision but has no embedded notion of sequence or succession A ruleflow organizes rules into a sequence of decisions using rule tasks to group the rules Rules are grouped in rule tasks (e.g. a decision table) The rule tasks are then organized into the sequence that they should executed A ruleflow represents a business decision, which can be made up of a multitude of smaller decisions or rules Ruleflows also specify the transitions from one task to the next Transitions determine how, when, and under what conditions each task is executed

18 Rule flow

19 A decision Business rule application development = decision modeling?

20 Rule flow

21 Rule flow

22 Business rule application design decision modeling A rule task may contain multiple decisions Depending on how the execution properties of a rule task are set, the rules might execute in order, or following a more complex logic Decision logic is not entirely declarative A rule flow diagram is a business process model, not a decision model E.g. pricing does not depend on eligibility Decisions (as rulesets) are the executable outcome, but design, maintenance and management are business rule-centric, not decision-centric

23 Conclusion IBM Software Group WebSphere software Decision modeling and business rule application design are orthogonal and complementary approaches towards a common objective Common objective is well-founded and executable decisions based on the business logic in a way that is well-understood and manageable Different, complementary approaches are particularly useful if they are interoperable Vocabulary is key Decision modeling is not business process modeling, but making a decision is a process There is more than decision tables

24 Thank you! Questions

25 Decision warehouse