If you are kicking off your first BRMS project, don’t start by gathering the rules! Often teams will be advised to begin their project by gathering all the relevant rules, in a natural language or rulebook approach. But these rules-first approaches address issues that don’t exist with modern BRMS technology, resulting in redundant and counter-productive efforts. A decisions-first, decision modeling approach using the Decision Model Notation (DMN) standard is the best practice for business rules projects when implementing a modern BRMS. In this recording of our live webinar, you will learn why building a decision model that is linked to the business context (metrics, processes, logical data structures) and then implementing this directly in a linked BRMS is faster and cheaper while resulting in more accurate rules, more business engagement and better value realized.

1. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions
James Taylor
CEO
4 Reasons to Start with Decision
Modeling on Your First BRMS Project

2. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 2
James Taylor
Decision Management Solutions
▶ We work with clients to
improve their business by
applying business rules &
analytic technology to
automate & improve decisions.
▶ Vendor-neutral
▶ Original DMN submitter
▶ Using decision modeling since 2011
▶ I have spent the last 14 years
focused on Business Rules and
Decision Management

3. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 3
Agenda
▶ Challenges With Traditional Approaches In BRMS
Projects
▶ Decision Modeling, DMN and BRMS
▶ Value of Decision Modeling for New BRMS Projects
▶ Increased Business Engagement
▶ Shorter Time to Market
▶ Easier to Demonstrate Business Value
▶ Minimized Ongoing maintenance costs
▶ Questions and Wrap Up

4. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 4
Challenges With Traditional
Approaches In BRMS Projects

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Challenges With Traditional Approaches In
BRMS Projects
▶ Drowning In The Rules Waterfall
▶ It’s Just A Big Bucket O’Rules
▶ I Can’t See The Forest For The Trees
▶ Where’s The Business Value Again?
▶ Are We There Yet?
▶ This Change Would Be Easy To Make If I Could Just
Find It…

6. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 6
Drowning In The Rules Waterfall
▶ Traditional rule analysis forces a waterfall approach:
▶ Find all the terms before you find the rules
▶ Find all the rules before you start implementing
▶ Capture the rules outside the BRMS before you do anything
▶ You can’t
▶ Identify iterations
▶ Deliver incrementally
▶ Apply Agile
▶ …

7. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 7
It’s Just A Big Bucket O’Rules
▶ Once captured, the rules are hard to manage
▶ Hard to track rules to sources
▶ Not clear who owns which rules
▶ Hard to show what each rule is for
▶ And all rules are treated the same
▶ Unnecessary documentation
▶ Too much (or too little) detail
▶ And BRMS metaphors are ignored

8. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 8
I Can’t See The Forest For The Trees
▶ It’s not clear what the rules are actually for
▶ Capturing rules involves a rush to detail
▶ Thresholds, limits and specifics overwhelm reviewers
▶ This detail is good for IT but not for business owners

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Where’s The Business Value Again?
▶ A BRMS is faster and cheaper for IT
▶ But which business objective is being targeted by
each rule is not clear
▶ How changing a rule affects the goal is not clear
either

10. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 10
Are We There Yet?
▶ Can seem like nothing can be done until everything
can be done
▶ Everyone ends up waiting for 100% coverage
▶ Not obvious how the project can add incremental
value

11. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 11
This Change Would Be Easy To Make If I
Could Just Find It…
▶ Changing a rule is easy
▶ Testing the change is
easy
▶ Finding the change is
hard

12. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 12
Decision Modeling, DMN and BRMS

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Model Decision Requirements
Information
Knowledge
DECISION
Precise
Decision
Structure

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Pre-Bureau
Risk Category
1 HIGH
2 MEDIUM
3 LOW
4 VERYLOW
5 DECLINE
6 HIGH
7 MEDIUM
8 LOW
TRUE
<100
[100..120[
[120..130]
>130
FALSE
<80
[80..90]
[90..110]
>110
Pre-bureau risk category table
UC
Existing
Customer
Application
Risk Score
Model Decision Context
-amount : Money
-amountLimit : Money
-facilityType : Enum
-id : String
-repaymentBy : Date
-status : Enum
Loan Appliation -address : String
-creditRtng : Enum
-dateOfBirth : Date
-disqualified : Boolean
-disqualificationReason : String
-firstName : String
-id : String
-middleInitials : String
-proofOfIdSeenBy : StaffId
-surname : String
-telephone : TelephoneNo
Person
-annualIncome : Money
-employmentRecord : Enum
-personalDebt : Integer
Financial Profile
-endDate : Date
-salary : Money
-startDate : Date
-terminationReason : Enum
-workType : Enum
Employment
-realisationDate : Date
-type : Enum
-value : Money
AssetLiability
0..* -applicant
1
0..1
-guarantor
1..*
1
1
1
0..*
1
0..*
Process
Data
Decision
Motivation
Organization
Department
Team
Role
Role
Team
Department
Organization

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Pre-Bureau
Risk Category
1 HIGH
2 MEDIUM
3 LOW
4 VERYLOW
5 DECLINE
6 HIGH
7 MEDIUM
8 LOW
TRUE
<100
[100..120[
[120..130]
>130
FALSE
<80
[80..90]
[90..110]
>110
Pre-bureau risk category table
UC
Existing
Customer
Application
Risk Score
Model Two Layers of Detail
Decision Requirements Decision Logic
Or Business Rules
In A BRMS

16. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 16
Decision Model and Notation (DMN)
▶ Open Industry Standard
▶ Broad Vendor Support
▶ Decision Management Solutions, FICO, IBM,
Oracle, TIBCO and others
▶ Object Management Group
▶ BPMN, UML and many other established standards
▶ “… provide a common notation that is readily
understandable by all business users... DMN creates a
standardized bridge for the gap between the business
decision design and decision implementation.”

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Value of Decision Modeling for New
BRMS Projects

18. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 18
Decision Modeling with DMN
For New BRMS Projects
Increased business
engagement
Shorter time to
market
Easier to
demonstrate
business value
Minimize ongoing
maintenance costs

19. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 19
Decision Models Are Accessible,
Collaborative, Sketchable

20. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 20
Decision Models Support Multiple (Business)
Perspectives
▶ All diagrams are views of the model
▶ Shared underlying decision requirements model
▶ Allows multiple business perspectives with
inconsistency
Decision Requirements
Model

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Decision Models Are Developed and Deployed
Iteratively
▶ Build high level models
▶ Pick a decision
▶ Model it in detail
▶ Then document rules,
decision logic
▶ Repeat for other decisions

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Decision Models Link Business Performance
to Execution
Improve
Cross-Sell
A
Total
Number of
Orders
Most
Recent
Order
Total Orders
last 12
months
Lifetime
Order Total
Customer
Status
1 >= 5 < 90 days > $10,000 - Gold
2 >=10 < 180 days > $20,000 - Gold
3 >= 20 < 360 days > $40,000 - Gold
4 - < 180 days - > $1,000,000 Gold
5 - - - > $2,000,000 Gold
Gold Customer Determination

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Decision Models Manage Rules
▶ Break down complex problems
▶ Eliminate redundant, hard to manage rules
▶ Describe each sub-decision with simple rules
▶ Dependencies are clear
▶ Navigation is easy
Sources and drivers
of change are clear
Rule Sets are
coherent
Impact and
ownership are clear
Find the rules that
have to change

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Decision Models Help The Business Manage
Decisions Not Just Rules
So you business-types
want to be able to
change your business
rules?
I want to relax
my underwriting
policy
I want to be able to
promote a new
product combination
I need to add
the new
regulations
No…

25. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 25
Clear decision models for
business users
IT-managed
Transformation
BRMS
Executable
Rules
BRMS
Executable
Rules BEFORE
AFTER
Multiple lists
and documents
about rules
Business Rules
duplicated
Users must navigate
unfamiliar repository
One set of Business
Rules
Users link directly
from familiar
diagram
Business / IT Collaboration
Change The Project Dynamic:
From IT-Centric to Business-Centric

26. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 26
Decision Modeling with DMN
For New BRMS Projects
Increased business
engagement
Shorter time to
market
Easier to
demonstrate
business value
Minimize ongoing
maintenance costs

27. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 27
Getting Started

28. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 28
Decision Modeling For BRMS Projects
▶ Steps
1. Decision Discovery
2. Business Decision Context
3. Iteration 1 Modeled
4. Initial Business Rules
5. Integrate Rules, Decisions
6. Finalize Iteration 1
▶ Software, consulting
and training
▶ Deliverables
▶ Self-sufficient team
▶ Best practices
▶ Graphical front-end
▶ First iteration complete
▶ First IBM ODM Project
http://bit.ly/DMSODM1
▶ First Red Hat JBoss BRMS Project
http://bit.ly/DMSRH1

29. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 29
Questions?

30. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 30
Decision Modeling with DMN
For New BRMS Projects
Increased business
engagement
Shorter time to
market
Easier to
demonstrate
business value
Minimize ongoing
maintenance costs

31. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 31
Decision Modeling For BRMS Projects
▶ Steps
1. Decision Discovery
2. Business Decision Context
3. Iteration 1 Modeled
4. Initial Business Rules
5. Integrate Rules, Decisions
6. Finalize Iteration 1
▶ Software, consulting
and training
▶ Deliverables
▶ Self-sufficient team
▶ Best practices
▶ Graphical front-end
▶ First iteration complete
▶ First IBM ODM Project
http://bit.ly/DMSODM1
▶ First Red Hat JBoss BRMS Project
http://bit.ly/DMSRH1

32. @jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions 32
DecisionsFirst Modeler
Collaborative, cloud-based decision modeling software
that puts decisions at the heart of your business
architecture, building better requirements and driving
successful business rules implementations
Key Features
Multi-user, Collaborative
Decision Model and Notation
(DMN) Support
Shared Database, Reusable
components
Automated Consistency and
Completeness Checks
Living Repository

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Opportunities To Learn More
▶ 3 Reasons to Adopt
Decision Modeling in
your BRMS Program
▶ Webinar
▶ September 29
▶ Register:
▶ http://bit.ly/2cVNHow
▶ White papers and more
on our website
▶ Online training coming
in November

34. Thank You
@jamet123 #decisionmgt © 2016 Decision Management Solutions
For more on
Decision Management, go to:
decisionmanagementsolutions.com
James Taylor
james@decisionmanagementsolutions.com