Task Descriptor: Build rule project structure

Task: Build rule project structure

Designing and building how the rule will be managed is an important activity of a BRMS project. This task describes how to build the set of rule and non rules projects that support the business application.

Purpose

Build a project structure which helps to easily manage the rules, the application code, and the domain object model. The application design is based on a n-tier architecture, with a service layer which includes rule services.

Relationships

Roles	Main: Rule Architect	Additional: Rule Analyst Rule Writer	Assisting:
Inputs	Mandatory: Decision Service Architecture	Optional: None	External: None

Main Description

This activity is linked to the tool used. There is still some considerations when designing the project structure for the rules and application:

Apply good design practice of implementing the application using a n-tier approach. The service layer includes the interfaces of the rule decision service entries.

Organize rule project so that a few person can concurrently work on rule artifact at the same time.
Organize rule project so that they are manageable in term of performance at the execution and at the rule authoring level.
Separate representation of the domain object model in java project.

Steps

Define rule meta properties

The development team need to define each rule’s meta properties to be used during rule management and rule execution (filtering of rules or reporting on rule execution.

The common properties are:

Rule ID, author, owner: to trace the rule changes
Expiration date, Effective date: to filter the rule according to time
The status to manage the rule life cycle to avoid deploying rule in development stages
Business motivation, Policy reference, requirement reference: to reference rule back to the requirements
Product reference, states, geographies: to manage rule per type of deployment or other dimension of application

The following tables lists some example of properties an analyst can design to manage a rule:

*Property name*	*Type*	*Possible Value*	*Description*	*Null able*	*Changeable*	*Extractable*	*Required*
Rule ID	Int or string		Unique identifier for the rules	No	No	Yes	Yes
BusinessMotivation	String	“”	Link the rule to the business motivation	Yes	Yes	No	No
PolicyReference	String	“”	Link the rule to a business policy	Yes	Yes	No	No
Status	String	New, Defined, Deployable, Deployed	Support the life cycle of the rule	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Rule Owner	String		Department team – no named person	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Expiration Date	Date		Date when the rule will not be extracted	Yes	Yes	No	No
Effective Date	Date		Date from when the rule will be extracted	Yes	Yes	No	No

Properties

Predecessor	Determine Rule Implementation
Multiple Occurrences
Event-Driven
Ongoing
Optional
Planned
Repeatable

This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
Eclipse Public License v1.0 which accompanies this distribution.