Following the publication of DMN (Decision Model and Notation), decision management has become a hot topic in, but not limited to, Belgium. An increasing number of parties claims to provide services related to decision management. They tend to think that decision management is limited to DMN. However, decision management is simply a new term for business rules management, a research area that became a business discipline during the 90’s, followed by a similar hype. A lack of knowledge about the discipline being practiced, resulted in a large number of failures, strongly reducing the velocity by which the innovative methodology has been adopted by organizations. During this session we want to give you a short introduction to decision management; what does it encompass and which benefits can be achieved by organizations. Yet, we also want to show you some of the lurking traps, should decision management be applied incorrectly. - Decision management encompasses more than DMN alone. - Don’t be fooled by the simple look of business rules. - If applied correctly, decision management can be advantageous.

2. 01 INTRODUCTION
EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT
DECISION MANAGEMENT,
SO WHAT IS IT?
PITFALLS
DECISION MANAGEMENT

3. Decision Management
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Origins
Traditionally a process is thought of to be solely
supported by people and tools. The knowledge
that is required for the execution of the process,
is considered as being part of the process itself.
PEOPLE TOOLS
PROCESSES

4. Decision Management
3The Business Analysts | Decision management – Pitfalls
Origins
The separation of knowledge from the processes
forms the basis for decision management. The
idea is that knowledge guides a process, whereas
the process itself only describes the paths that
must be followed in the different cases.
Traditionally a process is thought of to be solely
supported by people and tools. The knowledge
that is required for the execution of the process,
is considered as being part of the process itself.
PEOPLE TOOLS
PROCESSES
KNOWLEDGE
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5. Decision Management
4
What is it?
Business rules in natural language
Based on predicate logic
Multiple representation techniques
Structure and traceability
Business rules management system
Multiple representation techniques
⁀
MANAGEMENTDEFINITION
Business-oriented platform
Business rules engine
High integratability
EXECUTION
The Business Analysts | Decision management – Pitfalls21/03/2019

6. Decision Management
5
Applications
KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
KNOWLEDGE BASE
DEFINE THE
BUSINESS
POLICIES
CONTROL THE
BUSINESS
BI /
REPORTING
RUN THE
BUSINESS
IT SYSTEMS
COMMUNICATION
BUSINESS RULES
MANAGEMENT
MODEL-DRIVEN
ENGINEERING / SOA /
AGILE DEVELOPMENT
The Business Analysts | Decision management – Pitfalls21/03/2019

7. Decision Management
5
Applications
KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
KNOWLEDGE BASE
DEFINE THE
BUSINESS
POLICIES
CONTROL THE
BUSINESS
BI /
REPORTING
RUN THE
BUSINESS
IT SYSTEMS
COMMUNICATION
BUSINESS RULES
MANAGEMENT
BUSINESS RULES
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
MODEL-DRIVEN
ENGINEERING / SOA /
AGILE DEVELOPMENT
BUSINESS
REQUIREMENTS
IT SYSTEM
DEVELOPMENT
The Business Analysts | Decision management – Pitfalls21/03/2019

8. Decision Management
5
Applications
KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
KNOWLEDGE BASE
DEFINE THE
BUSINESS
POLICIES
CONTROL THE
BUSINESS
BI /
REPORTING
RUN THE
BUSINESS
IT SYSTEMS
COMMUNICATION
BUSINESS RULES
MANAGEMENT
BUSINESS RULES
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
LOGGING
MODEL-DRIVEN
ENGINEERING / SOA /
AGILE DEVELOPMENT
BUSINESS
REQUIREMENTS
IT SYSTEM
DEVELOPMENT
BUSINESS
RULES ENGINE (BRE)
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9. Applications
6
Knowledge base
The Business Analysts | Decision management – Pitfalls
Legislation made accessible
Traceability of the source
Publicly available
HET FACILITAIR BEDRIJF
A digital manual on public procure-
ment aimed at both the awarding
organizations and the tenderers.
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10. Applications
7
IT system development
The Business Analysts | Decision management – Pitfalls
Rules in natural language
Complete and consistent
Easy to exchange
RIZIV
The digitalization of disability appli-
cations to allow for an automatic
validation and awarding.
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11. Applications
8
Business rules engine
The Business Analysts | Decision management – Pitfalls
No black box for the business
Reuse of rules amongst sets
Modifiable by the business
INFORMATIE VLAANDEREN
Offer a platform as a service that
provides both data enrichment and
a rule engine to other entities.
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12. 02 PITFALLS
DECISION MANAGEMENT
SEEMS EASY, BUT A LOT
OF MISTAKES ARE MADE
PITFALLS
DECISION MANAGEMENT

13. Definition of business rules
10
Selection of projects
The Business Analysts | Decision management – Pitfalls
Also for non-IT projects
As intermediate solution
Adapters should stay objective
Although the application of decision
management is preferable in a lot
of situations, the efforts (time and
money) should only be invested if it
actually provides an added value.
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14. Definition of business rules
11
Representation techniques
The Business Analysts | Decision management – Pitfalls
Increase readability
Techniques can be combined
Not always supported by BREs
Different representation techniques
exist for the definition of business
rules. Each technique has its own
goals. Therefor the right technique
must be selected for each use case.
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15. Definition of business rules
12
Completeness and consistency
The Business Analysts | Decision management – Pitfalls
Prevent gaps / contradictions
Both for rules and rule sets
Doesn’t assure correctness
Each representation technique has
methods to ensure completeness
and consistency by design. If those
methods are not applied (correctly),
these properties aren’t guaranteed.
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16. Management of business rules
13
No interpretation
The Business Analysts | Decision management – Pitfalls
Use authentic sources
Question everything
Prepare validation sessions
Usually, the person who defines the
rules (especially for the initial rule
set) is not eligible to make any inter-
pretations. A close interaction with
the decision makers is required.
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17. Management of business rules
14
Solid architecture
The Business Analysts | Decision management – Pitfalls
First design, than apply
Multiple levels to consider
Highly dependent on platform
The number of rules within a rule
set can increase rather quickly, let
alone the number across multiple
rule sets. An architecture prevents
from a so-called big bucket of rules.
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18. Management of business rules
15
Governance
The Business Analysts | Decision management – Pitfalls
Ensure reviews take place
Multi-layered governance
Highly dependent on platform
Both the definition and the mainte-
nance of a rule set require a reliable
governance. Various responsibilities
such as the modification and the
publication must be assigned.
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19. Execution of business rules
16
Suitable product
The Business Analysts | Decision management – Pitfalls
Make a list of requirements
Think also non-functional
Avoid pseudo BREs
A wide variety of BREs can be found
on the market. They all come with
their specific functionalities. For a
successful adoption a BRE that fits
your organization must be selected.
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20. Execution of business rules
17
Technical influences
The Business Analysts | Decision management – Pitfalls
Code like rule definitions
Processes vs declarations
Sometimes reinforced by BRE
Often a BRE is being employed by
the IT department. In most cases
this results in technical influences,
negatively impacting the benefits of
decision management.
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21. Execution of business rules
18
Input data
The Business Analysts | Decision management – Pitfalls
Limited compared to needs
Pre-processing or rules
GUI vs headless
The input data that is available can
have a big impact on the rule set.
Therefore, it is important to have a
clear view on this data early on in
the definition of the business rules.
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