IDIOM Decision Suite and BizTalk Server
Abstract
Business data, processes and rules are fundamentally linked. However, business rules are not effectively managed by traditional information systems. A business that employs business rules management software can expect to gain many benefits. These include the ability to completely delegate ownership of the rules directly to the business unit that governs business decision making, definitive knowledge of all of the business rules that are in effect at any given time, and the ability to rapidly implement policy changes that affect the business rules. IDIOM is a product devoted exclusively to business rules management and can provide these benefits. IDIOM is particularly beneficial for business users, as it provides features such as precise English definitions of the business rules.
The Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a system architecture that exposes discrete components of the system through web services. The advantages of the SOA are well documented. In particular, the ability to reuse the business rules system components means that the same business rules can be used by all applications provided by the system. Publicly exposed web services can be used to enable third-party management of business rules; inter-departmental and inter-organisational automated decision making becomes possible. IDIOM generates a runtime implementation of business rules that can be easily exposed to other system components through a web service.
BizTalk Server is a technology that can be used to implement the Service Oriented Architecture. Together IDIOM and BizTalk Server can provide a sophisticated modelling environment for the definition of business rules, an implementation of the Service Oriented Architecture that includes a business rules web service and a streamlined deployment process for the business rules runtime implementation. Business processes are typically complex and dynamic and a significant part of many business processes is business decision making. Business decision making is underpinned by business rules. Despite the importance of business rules in business processes, the business rules cannot be easily managed by an organisation employing the traditional implementation of business rules in information systems.
Traditional Business Rules Implementation
In a traditional approach, both the management and implementation of business rules are bound up with the procedural code. Business rules are developed for a traditional system in a series of steps involving initial specification by business domain experts. This specification is subsequently translated by a chain of individuals until the business rules are eventually programmed as procedural code. Maintenance of these business rules often requires additional steps to (re)define the business rules that are implemented in the procedural code and to reconcile them with new business requirements.
As a side effect, the difficulties inherent in such an approach are such that it has been very difficult, and therefore quite uncommon, to implement third-party rules into businesses systems – the reality is however, that many business rules are in fact defined by third parties, and this remains in most cases an unresolved business problem.
Modern systems development has recognised that a loosely coupled modular architecture greatly facilitates the development and maintenance of information technology for the complex and dynamic environment of business processes. Many significant advantages are realised by employing a modular architecture because the modules can now interact coherently and can be readily reused, extended and distributed. These advantages result in efficiency gains throughout the software lifecycle.