Jim Sinur

One of the more frequent questions I receive is around the need for business rule technologies. Of course, the answer is “It Depends”. It depends on the frequency of rule changes, the timing for the actual rule changes, the skill level of the implementer and the impact of the changes.

Rules Volatility:

If you find yourself changing business rules often, you probably need a business rule engine (BRE) because it is quicker and easier to change the rules in order to complete the change process. Organizations are finding themselves changing rules more frequently the kind of economy we face today. I would bet that this volatility increases over time.

Timing of Rule Changes:

If you find your self having to make changes quickly, you will also find a need for a BRE as well. It maybe that a set of business rules don’t change often, but when they do the change has to be made in a zero-latency fashion. If you wish to manage the rule rollout you might also need a business rule management system (BRMS), which would either augment a BRE or surround a BRE with a rule repository as a complete package..

Skill of the Implementer:

.Programmers, usually, don’t need help in making rule changes, but business analysts desire it. Most, if not all BREs support multiple ways of representing rules including decision trees, decision tables, and/or pseudo lingual approaches. Sometimes easy to use graphical interfaces for changing parameters can reduce the need for a true BRE.

Impact of Change:

Most organizations can’t change business rules without understanding the impact of those rule changes on other business rules. Because of this need, organizations are tending towards deciding on a BRE enabled BRMS or adding a BRMS to an existing BRE.

There are many reasons to leverage rule technologies including leveraging rules for complex decisions, but today most organizations are using rule technologies to react to the need for instant agility.