SAP NetWeaver BRM 7.3 New Features Overview Arti Gopalan Solution Specialist SAP NetWeaver BRM NetWeaver Orchestration SAP Labs India
Agenda Technical Components of NW BRM Rules Composer Rules Manager Rules Engine SAP 2010 / Page 2
Highlights in Rules Composer Rules Reuse Other Actions in Decision Table Test Suites in Rules Testing SAP 2008 / Page 3
Rules Reuse User can model a Reusable Ruleset in a Rules Composer DC Reusable ruleset can contain rule flows, rule scripts, decision tables and if-then rules Reusable ruleset uses the global vocabulary of the rules DC Rulesets and Flow Rulesets can reuse the artifacts of Reusable Rulesets within the same DC If-then rules can reuse other if-then rules as preconditions Rule scripts can execute reusable if-then rules If-then rules, rule scripts and rule flows can evaluate reusable decision tables Rule flows can execute reusable if-then rules, decision tables, rule scripts and other rule flows Reusable rulesets are executable and can be invoked from Rules runtime API Reusable ruleset is executed as a Flow Ruleset Other BRMS vendors have similar reuse capability offered under the name Rule Packages Value Proposition Users can model common rules in one place and reuse them across several rulesets Example: A European Insurance company would have a few common rules for all countries and a few country specific rules. The common rules can be arranged in reusable rulesets and assembled as applicable within the various country specific rulesets Business Rules management and maintenance would be simplified for large rule bases with significant volume of common rules across rulesets SAP 2010 / Page 4
Other Actions in Decision Table Users can add a generic Other Action in a decision table. This feature is similar to the Other Condition feature in a decision table Users can create multiple actions within one action cell The multiple actions can be assign variable definition actions and execute method actions Value proposition Significant power to the user in modelling a sequence of actions within decision table based on a satisfied set of conditions Addition or removal of multiple items from a list based on a condition criteria is now possible An illustration of Product Configuration choices example is shown below. SAP 2010 / Page 5
Test Suites in Rules Testing Rules Testing in NW BRM 7.2 allows declarative modelling of rules test data and expected results The new feature Test Suites provides user with the capability to pool test cases into one executable set The Test Suite execution results are presented in HTML report User can drill-down to each test case execution report to get a more in-depth analysis. Value proposition Users can construct regression test scenarios for rules Users can perform rules change impact analysis more effectively SAP 2010 / Page 6
Highlights in Rules Manager Integration with MS Excel Compare Feature Grouping/Ungrouping Condition Show Perspective in Decision Table SAP 2008 / Page 7
Integration with MS Excel Enables business users to make changes in Decision Tables Export Decision Table Data to MS Excel Modify Data in Excel and Import back data into Decision Table Import / Export Data MS Excel 2007 Supported Value Proposition Business users will now be able to make changes to values using familiar MS Excel 2007 interface and upload these at runtime. SAP 2010 / Page 8
Compare Feature Enables Business users to see what got changed between versions using color coding Highlighting the changes is done for Ruleset Rules Definitions Value Proposition User can clearly identify the changes in two different versions of rule artifacts. SAP 2010 / Page 9
Grouping/Ungrouping Condition User can create complex conditions using this feature User can group/ungroup the conditions logically Value Proposition Grouping conditions Feature parity with rules composer. Now users can change the nesting of complex conditions using rules manager. Ungrouping conditions SAP 2010 / Page 10
Show Perspective in Decision Table Highlights all the Action values related to a Condition value Value Proposition Makes easy for a business user to identify the appropriate action values for the selected condition value. Useful in case of a large decision table which spreads over multiple pages horizontally and vertically SAP 2010 / Page 11
Highlights in Rules Engine Lean Rules Engine Direct Consumption of Decision Tables SAP 2008 / Page 12
Lean Rules Engine Deploy rules into any Application Server of choice or within any J2SE environment A simple POJO Rules Engine based on JSE Users can download lean rules engine libraries from Rules Manager; business rules from Rules Manager, and deploy the lean rules engine using custom software logistics Value proposition Small, lean and very low TCO File system footprint < 3 MB Fast startup of the Rules Engine Ability to embed the Rules Engine as part of any application Ability to run the Rules Engine on any J2SE / J2EE environment Simplifies adoption of NW BRM for existing QuickRules Java and.net customers SAP 2010 / Page 13
Direct Consumption of Decision Tables Decision Tables in Reusable Rulesets are made available for direct consumption User can invoke a decision table directly by using BRM Public APIs User can provision a decision table as a web service Value Proposition Many scenarios where all the required rules can be captured as a single decision table can now easily consume the decision table directly Decision Table is more like a ruleset in itself, together with Other Actions and Other Conditions features, and can now capture large number of highly complex rules in easy to read and maintain grid format. SAP 2010 / Page 14
Thank you! SAP 2008 / Page 15
Copyright Copyright 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express permission of SAP AG. The information contained herein may be changed without prior notice. Some software products marketed by SAP AG and its distributors contain proprietary software components of other software vendors. Microsoft, Windows, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. IBM, DB2, DB2 Universal Database, System i, System i5, System p, System p5, System x, System z, System z10, System z9, z10, z9, iseries, pseries, xseries, zseries, eserver, z/vm, z/os, i5/os, S/390, OS/390, OS/400, AS/400, S/390 Parallel Enterprise Server, PowerVM, Power Architecture, POWER6+, POWER6, POWER5+, POWER5, POWER, OpenPower, PowerPC, BatchPipes, BladeCenter, System Storage, GPFS, HACMP, RETAIN, DB2 Connect, RACF, Redbooks, OS/2, Parallel Sysplex, MVS/ESA, AIX, Intelligent Miner, WebSphere, Netfinity, Tivoli and Informix are trademarks or registered trademarks of IBM Corporation. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, PostScript, and Reader are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. UNIX, X/Open, OSF/1, and Motif are registered trademarks of the Open Group. Citrix, ICA, Program Neighborhood, MetaFrame, WinFrame, VideoFrame, and MultiWin are trademarks or registered trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. HTML, XML, XHTML and W3C are trademarks or registered trademarks of W3C, World Wide Web Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Java is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. JavaScript is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc., used under license for technology invented and implemented by Netscape. SAP, R/3, SAP NetWeaver, Duet, PartnerEdge, ByDesign, SAP Business ByDesign, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and other countries. Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, Crystal Decisions, Web Intelligence, Xcelsius, and other Business Objects products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects S.A. in the United States and in other countries. Business Objects is an SAP company. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serves informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary. These materials are subject to change without notice. These materials are provided by SAP AG and its affiliated companies ("SAP Group") for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The only warranties for SAP Group products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.