[jboss-dev-forums] [Design of JBoss jBPM] - Re: jbpm drools integration meeting

[woolfel]

Mark as me to comment on this, so here goes my bias 2 cents.

>From first hand experience building applications with JESS, it doesn't match reality. I understand the concerns about the control of the rules and reducing risk, but the main selling point of a rule engine and rule approach is it enables business analysts to write the rules.

take for example EBay. they currently use JRules from iLog. At EBay, the rules are used to route transactions and filter out bogus stuff. If the rules are considered java code, that implies it should go through a full deployment process. This would mean the business analysts couldn't change the rules on the fly during the day to filter out bogus products or bids.

another example. within the securities world, compliance officers are responsible for writing rules and making sure violations against government regulations do not occur. when violations occur, it results in heafty fines ranging in the millions. Many older compliance systems treat rules as code, which means it takes large institutions 8-10 months to write, test and deploy new rules.

the reality is the rules always have to be in sync with the application, so whether CVS or a rule repository is used is not the issue. The issue is how can a rule repository find a good balance between risk control and flexibility. Many of the cases I know of use a rule template approach. A rule template defines a given pattern, which users populate. When ever a new rule template is introduced, it goes through a rigorous validation and testing process. If a business analyst creates a new rule using an existing template, the risk is rather low. this reduces the cost of testing and validation.

having said that, using a BRMS (business rule management system) is best suited if the rules use a data driven approach like drools3, jrules, blaze, jess, etc. If the rules couple the data to the rules, then a BRMS approach is more painful and likely not useful. I don't know how jBPM works or whether it uses a data driven approach. If jBPM doesn't use a data driven approach, then I would agree a CVS/SVN approach is better suited.

whether jBPM should tie the data to the rules is a different issue beyond the scope of this thread.

peter

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