This presentation introduces you to the Decision Governance Framework that is new in IBM Operational Decision Manager version 8.5 Decision Center.

This presentation introduces you to the Decision Governance Framework that is new in IBM Operational Decision Manager version 8.5 Decision Center. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 1 of 32

The session starts with an overview of the framework design. Then you learn the new terminologies and key principles that implement the framework, and look into more details of those concepts in separate sections. In addition, you learn how to configure the access control to the governance project and mode setting tasks as an administrator. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 2 of 32

This section gives you an overview of the framework design. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 3 of 32

The Decision Center offers you a comprehensive, ready-to-use approach for decision change management and governance cycles. It is based on the releases and activities within a decision service scope. In Decision Center, the framework guides all the participants during the change and validation cycle of a decision service. It enables the traceability for setting requirements, rule changes, and approval processes. On the slide, there is a list of new terminologies introduced. First is the Decision Service. The decision service designates a group of rule projects to produce a rule set. It is a simplified unit of work for governance, while remaining compatible with the regular rule project management. Next is the Release. The release is attached to the decision service. A decision service can have multiple releases. Because the rules change over time, Decision Center uses releases to capture and trace all changes relating to a business purpose for a period in time. Each release is a container of rules which is targeted to be deployed to production. The actual rule changes are managed through change activities, in the context of a release. And the validation of a release content is tracked through validation activities. In the next few sections, you will learn these new features with more details. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 4 of 32

You can better understand how the rule changes are managed using the decision governance framework by learning its sequence first. At the beginning, you complete a release, and deploy its content as a decision service to production. Then you start a new release, which is based on the existing, completed release. During the new release development time, you make changes to the rules by using change activities, in which you have one or more participants work on the rule changes. When all the change activities relating to the release are completed, you can start validating the release. Once all the activities get approved, this release is completed. Again, you can start a new release and go on. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 5 of 32

The underlying implementation is based on the rule project branches. A release is a subbranch of its parent release branch, with some specific release metadata. A change activity is a sub-branch of the release branch. When the rule changes are completed, they are automatically merged to the release branch. In the case that auto-merge fails, or you want to manually push one change to another branch, the content merge and management for the branches can be performed in the Decision Center Enterprise Console. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 6 of 32

The Decision Governance Framework is visible in the Business Console. It enables the project release managers to create and manage the releases and activities. The business rule authors edit rules and decision tables through the change activities. The testers can write the test plans and log the validation results in the validation activities. There are also a few advanced governance related tasks that you can work on in the Enterprise Console. First, the advanced users can manage and merge branches as needed. The configuration managers can create the rule apps and deploy them as decision services. With the validation activity goals, the testers can run the test suites and simulations defined in the Enterprise Console to validate the release. When working with decision services with project security enabled, the administrator can give the appropriate permissions on release and change activity branches. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 7 of 32

In the next section, you learn the Decision Service. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 8 of 32

Because the deployment might encompass rules from more than one project, Decision Center proposes a decision service, which is a service provided to a rule-aware application to render a decision. The diagram shown on this slide is an example of a Pricing decision service, with a toplevel project and its dependent projects. On the left, in the traditional rule project mode, you work on those projects separately. On the right, the decision service groups the dependent projects together and exposes the top one as a service. It simplifies the governance work for the business users to manage the changes easily. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 9 of 32

The decision service is created in the Rule Designer. You choose the top project and open its properties. On the left property list, select the Decision Service category. Then you enable the check box to handle the project and its dependencies as a decision service in the Decision Center. Next you publish it from Rule Designer to Decision Center. The name of the decision service corresponds to the top-level project. After a successful publish, an initial release is created as a starting point in the decision center. This becomes the base of which you can create new releases and manage rule changes over the time. Each release is made up of a branch of the project, including the dependent project, that is contained in the decision service. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 10 of 32

In this section, the Release concept is introduced in detail. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 11 of 32

The release is a container of rules and decision tables. You cannot edit a release directly. Instead, you change the rule content using the change activities, and you validate the release through the validation activities that are attached to the release. A release has a name and a completed parent release to be based upon. You define the business goals for the release and set a due date. The user who creates the release is the owner of the release by default. You can assign the ownership to another participant and assign the approver of the release. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 12 of 32

Here is a screen capture of a release page. The top left part shows the breadcrumb of the decision service and the release name. You can use the drop down to switch to another release without exiting the view. On the toolbar, you can click the Create New icon to create a new change activity or a new validation activity. By clicking the Timeline icon, you can view the change history of the release. On the main content panel, the Activities page lists all the change activities and validation activities. The left dropdown filters the activities by the state. You can sort the list based on the due date, the name, or the activity type. You can also filter the list by name. On the Rules page, all the rules from the parent release are listed. On the Snapshots page, you find an initial snapshot created by default. Each activity entry shows its name, the description, the status icon on the right, the due date, and the owner. Clicking the activity entry will enter the activity view. The right side panel shows the release properties and stream. You can click the Edit icon next to the Goals section to modify the business goals for the release. Based on the role, the editable properties are shown in blue. Clicking the blue text you can perform quick inplace editing. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 13 of 32

This slide shows the life cycle of a release. When you create a release, Decision Center creates a snapshot of the release, and it starts with In progress state. During the In Progress state, the participants can create change activities and validation activities, and assign them to other participants to work on. Once all the activities of the release are finished, the owner of the release sets the status to Ready for approval. The release approvers now can start to approve or reject the changes to the release. If all approve, the release is automatically complete. If one of the approvers rejects, the status automatically becomes Rejected. The release owner can choose to reopen the release and it becomes In progress again. At any state other than complete, the owner can cancel the release. Only the owner can reopen the cancelled release. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 14 of 32

You can look at the release sequence from another view. When an initial content of a decision service is published from Rule Designer to Decision Center, an initial release is created. Using it as a starting point, a new release can be created. With the example on this slide, the rule content of Spring 2013 release is based on the initial release content. The participants work on the change and validation activities when the release is in progress. After all the activities are complete, the approver approves the release. The completed release thus can be deployed to production. Afterwards, new releases can be created based on the Spring 2013 release. You can have multiple releases in parallel. In this example, both the particular Spring 2013 fix 1 and the Summer 2013 release are based on Spring 2013. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 15 of 32

Now move on to the change activity feature. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 16 of 32

As long as the release is In Progress, any participant can create change activities. In a change activity, a group of participants change the rules and get the changes approved. All the rule changes to a release have to be performed through change activities. The change activity comes with a set of properties, including a name, a description of the business goals for the activity, a due date, an owner, and one or more approvers and authors. The authors finish their rule editing work and mark their work finished. Then it is the approvers turn to approve or reject the changes. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 17 of 32

Here is a screen capture of a change activity page. The top left shows the breadcrumb of the decision service, the release, and the change activity. On the toolbar, you can click Create New to create a new rule, or decision table, or a new folder. By clicking Timeline, you can view change history in this activity. The main content panel is similar to the classic rule project page. It contains Rules and Snapshots pages. The rule content is at the same level as the release. An initial snapshot is automatically created when the change activity is created. On the right side panel, you can view and edit applicable properties and stream. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 18 of 32

The change activity contains the version of the rules found in the release at the moment the change activity is created. When you make rule changes in the context of a change activity, the changes are local to the activity sub-branch. When it is approved, Decision Center takes another snapshot to record the state of the rules, and then merges the changes into the release. This automatically captured snapshot has the naming convention Merged from and the change activity name. When one participant is editing a rule, the rule is locked to prevent concurrent changes from being made. For example, you can define multiple change activities in a release. It is possible that the same rule needs to be updated in different activities. To avoid such conflicts, a rule that is edited in a change activity is locked in all other activities. Only after the activity is completed and merged, the rule is unlocked in other activities. You can view the change history of a change activity or a release using Timeline function. To view the detail changes, you can use the comparison tools that are available at snapshot level and rule level. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 19 of 32

Here is the diagram shows the change activity life cycle. At the time you create the change activity, it is in the In Progress state. When the authors finish working on the rule changes, the owner can update the activity status to Ready for approval. If all approvers approve the changes, the status is automatically set to Complete. If one of the approvers rejects the changes, it goes back to the In progress state. If there are no approvers set, the change activity is automatically approved after finishing. At anytime except Complete status, the owner can cancel the activity. A Cancelled change activity can be reopened by the owner. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 20 of 32

In the Governance mode, there is a new top level WORK page added in addition to Home and Library pages. The WORK page lists all the outstanding change activities and validation activities that the login user needs to work on. You can sort the list by due date, or by release, or by the activity type. You can also filter the list by the status using drop down on the left or by the name in the Filter field on the right. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 21 of 32

This section covers the validation activity information. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 22 of 32

In the validation activities, you use the test plans to track and manage the release validation. The tests are performed outside the Business Console, for example, run test suites or simulation in the Enterprise Console, or use other external test mechanisms. The participant who has the permission to work on the release can create the validation activity. You create it with a name, a description of business goals for the activity, a due date, an owner, approvers, and testers. The test work can only be started after all the change activities are completed. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 23 of 32

The life cycle of the validation activity is similar to the change activity. It starts with the In Progress state. When the testers finish validation, the owner can update the activity status to Ready for approval. If no approver is set, the activity is automatically approved. If all approvers approve the changes, the status is automatically set to Complete. If an approver rejects a validation, he can add a message explaining the reason. The message is shown under the activity goals. In this case, one or more actions need to be taken: either add or update a test plan, or create new change activity to fix the release content. At anytime except complete status, the owner can cancel the activity and reopen the cancelled activity. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 24 of 32

There is no test function available in the Business Console. A common approach is to use a test suite or simulation defined in the Enterprise Console for validation. In the validation activity page, you can add a test plan which defines the test details. The tester cannot start testing while the rule authors are working on the change activities. But the testers can start defining the test plans. You can add the test suite URL link to the test plan details. When it is the time to execute, the tester can click the link to launch the test suite in the Enterprise console. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 25 of 32

After running the tests, you can check the test report in the Enterprise Console, and record the result right away in the validation activity test plan. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 26 of 32

This section gives you some useful administrative information on the governance user settings and configuration. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 27 of 32

To add the business users to the governance work and see them in the assigning list, you need to configure or integrate the actual user registry service with the Business Console. By default, you can run the upload-users Ant task when you add or change users. The users are added in an XML file with a certain format. There is an example provided in the product. If you want to add a new user, you have to keep the existing users in the XML and add the new user in the list. A set of ANT task parameters is needed and a sample command is provided on this slide. Note that the business users added in the XML file must also exist in your application server. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 28 of 32

For Business Console Governance mode and Rule Project mode visibility, business users can access both modes. Governance mode is selected by default. You might want your business users to have access to only one of these modes. Or still access both modes, but use the Rule Project mode as default. To change the mode setting, you use the Installation Settings Wizard available in the Enterprise Console. There are two new configuration parameters you can use. The teamserver.governance.mode parameter lets you define the mode display option. If you set the value to user, the login user can make the choice. If you set to governance, the business user can only work on decision services after they have logged in to the business console. Or set to ruleproject so the business user can only work on the classic rule project. The teamserver.goverance.user.default parameter is in effect when the first teamserver.governance.mode parameter is set to user. It sets the default mode. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 29 of 32

In this session, you first had an overview of the Decision Governance Framework design. Then you learned the new components of the framework, including the decision service, the release, the change and validation activities. Their key concepts and workflows were introduced in detail. At the end, you also learned how to administer governance users and configure the mode settings in Enterprise Console. ODM85_DecisionGovernanceFramework.ppt Page 30 of 32

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