Model Decisions and Business Rules in System Architect Larry Goldberg & Barbara von Halle Knowledge Partners International LLC
Who is KPI? Solutions: Decision WorkBench Plug-in for System Architect STEP Methodology, Tools, Training for Decision Modeling Books: The Decision Model: A Framework for Business Logic and Business-driven SOA Business Rule Revolution (2006) - Industry experiences Business Rules Applied (2002) - Industry standard reference Contact: lgoldberg@kpiusa.com, bvonhalle@kpiusa.com Copyright 2008 Knowledge Partners International LLC 2
The Business Opportunity of Decision Modeling: Real Case Study Before After Process flows documented to decision level Detailed business rules documented in a decision model Number of processes reduced from 26 to 13 (7 are reused) Re-usable flows created by removing decisions from the processes and creating re-usable decisions Copyright 2008 Knowledge Partners International LLC 3
The Business Opportunity of Decision Modeling: Real Case Study Detailed business rules documented in decision models A total of 230 Rule Sets normalized to 23 Decisions and 51 Rule Families A total of 22 weeks compared to 100 weeks for the previous project base on a semantic approach Dramatically easier to implement into technology Copyright 2008 Knowledge Partners International LLC 4
How the Decision Model Fits Determine Policy Renewal Method Policy Tier Within Bounds Policy Tier(P1)(P2) Policy Discount (P2) Policy Discount Policy Grade (P1) Package Grade (P1) Policy Discount (P1) State Category (P1) Policy Renewal Method Policy Tier Within Bounds (P2, P3) Manual Policy Override (P1) Major Ownership Change Minority Stockholder(P3)(P4) Majority Stockholder(P2) Board Change(P1) CEO Change (P1)(P3) Manual Policy Override Major Ownership Change (P2) Major Location Change (P1) Annual Premium (P3) Discontinued Agent (P4) Manual Flag (P5).. (P6) Major Location Change Zip-5 (P1) Occupied Square Footage (P2) Construction (P3) Use Case Model(s) Decision Model(s) Business Process Model(s) Copyright 2008 Knowledge Partners International LLC 5
Agenda Decision Modeling Decision Modeling and BPM = SOA The KPI Decision WorkBench Copyright 2008 Knowledge Partners International LLC 6
The Problem Today Business Problem: No standard way to organize business rules/business logic into a technologyindependent, universal model Technology Problem: No standard way to translate business rules/business logic into code Best Practice Today: Express business logic as business rules, separate from process flow or as part of requirements. Organize business rules in sets. Better Solution: A universal model for business rules/business logic (like the relational model was for data) Copyright 2008 Knowledge Partners International LLC 7
Determine Method of Policy Renewal Decision Model Solution Policy Tier Within Bounds Policy Discount (P2) Policy Tier(P1)(P2) Method of Policy Renewal Policy Tier Within Bounds (P2, P3) Manual Policy Override (P1) Major Ownership Change Manual Policy Override Major Ownership Change (P2) Major Location Change (P1) Annual Premium (P3) Discontinued Agent (P4) Manual Flag (P5).. (P6) Policy Discount Policy Grade (P1) Package Grade (P1) Policy Discount (P1) State Category (P1) Minority Stockholder(P3)(P4) Majority Stockholder(P2) Board Change(P1) CEO Change (P1)(P3) Major Location Change Zip-5 (P1) Occupied Square Footage (P2) Construction (P3) 8
Policy Tier Within Bounds Policy Tier(P1)(P2) Policy Discount (P2) Policy Discount Policy Grade (P1) Package Grade (P1) Policy Discount (P1) State Category (P1) Determine Policy Renewal Method Policy Renewal Method Policy Tier Within Bounds (P2, P3) Manual Policy Override (P1) Major Ownership Change Minority Stockholder(P3)(P4) Majority Stockholder(P2) Board Change(P1) CEO Change (P1)(P3) Manual Policy Override Major Ownership Change (P2) Major Location Change (P1) Annual Premium (P3) Discontinued Agent (P4) Manual Flag (P5).. (P6) Major Location Change Zip-5 (P1) Occupied Square Footage (P2) Construction (P3) Notation Explained The Inferential relationship line from the Rule Family (dotted end of the line) to the Dependent Rule Family (un-dotted end) Rule Family in Decision Model Diagram Rule Family Table Conditions Conclusion Pattern Manual Policy Override Policy Tier Within Bounds Renewal Method 1 is Yes is Manual Renewal Process 2 is No is Manual Renewal Process 3 is No is Yes is Automatic Renewal Process Conditions Conclusion Policy Tier Pattern Policy Tier Policy Discount Within Bounds 1 1 is No 2 1.5 > 10% is No 2 2 > 20% is No 2 2.6 > 22% is No 2 > 1 0% is Yes 2 > 1.5 20% is Yes 2 > 2 22 is Yes 1 > 2.6 is Yes The Rule Pattern is created by commonality of facts used in reaching a conclusion. Rule Pattern 1 uses the Policy Tier Fact to determine the conclusion. The Business Rule in the first row and the last row belong to this pattern. The sequence of the rows are unimportant. Pattern 2 uses both the Policy Tier Fact and the Policy Discount Fact to determine the conclusion. All the rules except for the first and last rule belong to this Rule Pattern in this Rule Family. The sequence of the rows is unimportant in the Rule Family 9
Agenda Decision Modeling Decision Modeling and BPM = SOA The KPI Decision WorkBench Copyright 2008 Knowledge Partners International LLC 10
Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Business Process Model Decision Model Diagram Conditions Conclusion Rule Pattern Person's Debt Person's Employment History Person's Credit Rating 1 is Low is Good = "A" 1 is Low is Bad =? 1 is High is Good =? 1 is High is Bad =? Rule Family Table 11
The Business Decision Connects the Business Models Use Case Business Motivation Model Influencer Assessment End Means Deci sion Decision Model Process Model Copyright 2008 Knowledge Partners International LLC 12
Conventional SOA Stack Business Processes Interfaces defined by enterprise model task definition task implementation Business Services IS Interfaces balance enterprise semantics and legacy IS IS IS IS IS IS Integration Services Operational Resources
Services Tasks May be Decisions Task Task Task Decision Decision Entity Entity Entity Copyright 2008 Knowledge Partners International LLC 14
Service Tasks May be Composite Policy Issuance Customer Service Underwriti ng Service Policy Service Billing Service Copyright 2008 Knowledge Partners International LLC 15
Agenda Decision Modeling Decision Modeling and BPM = SOA The KPI Decision WorkBench Demonstration Copyright 2008 Knowledge Partners International LLC 16
KPI Decision WorkBench The KPI Decision WorkBench is an extension to Telelogic System Architect (SA) The WorkBench adds features directly related to the implementation of the Decision Model in SA All the existing Features of SA remain fully functional and available The Decision Model is connected to all process models, use cases, and other enterprise models inherent in SA The WorkBench transforms SA into a robust, Enterprise capable Business Decision and Business Rules repository Copyright 2008 Knowledge Partners International LLC 17
KPI Decision Workbench Features New Definitions Business Decisions Rule Families Business Rules Glossary 15 Principals Enforced Inferential Relationships 1 st, 2 nd and 3 rd Normal Form for Rule Families Atomic Logic New Diagram Decision Model Business Decisions, Rule Families Relationships Connects to Process Models, Use Case Steps, Data Model, Object Model, Enterprise Direction Copyright 2008 Knowledge Partners International LLC 18
WorkBench Demonstration: Case Study Business Process: Policy Renewal Business Decision: Automatic vs. Manual Renewal Deliverables Enhanced BPMN Decision Tasks and Use Case Decision Steps Decision Model Diagram and Rule Family Tables Full Interactive, Graphic Traceability Report Templates for Business Rule Catalogues Copyright 2008 Knowledge Partners International LLC 19
Demo Screenshots Copyright 2008 Knowledge Partners International LLC 20
The KPI Decision WorkBench showing Traceability of Decisions to all other artifacts
Building a process model in SA using BPMN
We are in a sub-process, and drill to the next level of sub-process
This sub-process contains a Business Decision task. We drill down to the Decision Model
This Decision Model is our first view of the Decision WorkBench plug-in to SA. We now drill into the Decision
This is the definition of the Business Decision. It contains tabs for the Decision Metadata
The Decision is connected to the Business Direction Model, as well as to the Requirements, both of which are standard SA artifacts
We can click to the Rule Family from the diagram, or from the Business Decision definition
We can click to the Rule Family table from the Rule Family definition, and then drill to the single business rule
From any Business Rule clause, we can drill to the Rule Clause form, and from here drill to the fact glossary
The glossary contains direct mappings to the Data Model and/or the Object Model in SA
This is the referenced-by panel. We can click on any of these items to open them from this screen At any point in the drilldown process, we can click the where referenced button, and that will bring up our referenced-by panel