BRDP Business Rules - Latest and Greatest News

Software AG and ILOG Sign a Strategic Alliance for BPM/SOA Solutions: "ILOG Joins Software AG's Partner Alliance

DARMSTADT, Germany and PARIS, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Software
AG (Frankfurt TecDAX: SOW) and ILOG(R), (Nasdaq: ILOG; Euronext: ILO, ISIN:
FR0004042364) one of the world's leading providers of business rule management
systems (BRMS), today announced a strategic alliance. As an initial step,
Software AG will globally resell ILOG's JRules, a key offering in ILOG's BRMS
product line. Software AG will include ILOG JRules(TM) in its portfolio of
business process management (BPM) and service-oriented architecture (SOA)
solutions. The companies will also collaborate on joint marketing activities.
..more"

http://au.sys-con.com/read/175365.htm: "SOA Web Services: 'Ruling Out Services'
Ask 10 people the question: What is SOA? You will most likely get 10 different answers
By: Ajit Sagar
Jan. 26, 2006 07:00 PM



Ask 10 people the question: What is SOA? You will most likely get 10 different answers. Chances are that in more than 50 percent of the cases, the word 'Web services' will be a part of the answer. Another 20 percent will talk about process orchestration, XML, integration, and so on. All of these answers definitely describe either the elements of SOA or the components used for the implementation of SOA. One of the technology paradigms that does not instantly come to mind though is 'business rules.'
The association of business rules technologies with service orientation is rather new, although the technology itself has been around for a while. Business rules and process orchestration make a rather interesting combination. A few years ago the two areas had substantial overlap, and in a project it was sometimes hard to determine which one to use to solve which problem. A couple of years back a client had engaged us in a project that involved a rather elaborate proof of concept to determine whether the combination of process orchestration business rules made sense in their organization. The project was part of a larger initiative to service enable their legacy applications. Since the whole team was new to the technology, often questions arose regarding what to model where. The process orchestration vendors provide the ability to execute conditional logic within the process. Of course, this should be limited to logic that is routing, branching, etc. - not logic that is associated with actual calculations, decisions, and complex computations. The BRMS (Business Rules Management Systems) vendors, on ton the other hand, allow you to do the opposite - execute flows in the midst of processing complex logic. What can't be achieved (in either product) through the basic constructs can be done by using the programming language and scripting plug-ins that are available.
The market has matured quite a lot since then. It is not that the features have been removed - indeed, the products offer more, not less. It is just that the space that is occupied in the tiers of an SOA is much more clearly defined. Process orchestration is for the orchestration of business logic (implemented in SOA as discrete services). It allows us to separate the actual execution of the service from the context in which it is executed.
The service that is orchestrated through process orchestration performs business logic. If that business logic is composed of complex computations based on decisioning, it lends itself very well to the paradigm of business rules. All of the business rules engine (BRE) vendors in the market specialize in modeling such logic during design and executing it very efficiently during run time. Also, the interface to this logic is accessible as a well-defined service in an SOA. If you are designing a business process, essentially you will end up with discrete tasks. The tasks that lend themselves well to complex conditional logic are excellent candidates for business rules. BREs also provide powerful features for designing and modifying the rules in "business terms," which helps an SOA achieve the business agility objective.
Thus the question that may come to mind is: Why don't we see business rules mentioned whenever there is a reference to SOA - such as orchestration? Well, though business rules can be used to implement services in an SOA, they are applicable to a certain kind of service. In other words, there are other paradigms for creating services - object-oriented programming language constructs constitute one of the most prevalent. On the other hand, process orchestration orchestrates all services, whether they are business related or not.
Published Jan. 26, 2006 — Reads 561 Copyright © 2006 SYS-CON Media. All Rights Reserved"

SDA Asia Magazine: "Gartner: ILOG Leads BRE Software Market

ILOG came out on tops in Gartner Dataquest's detailed market analysis entitled 'Market Share: Business Rule Engine Software, Worldwide, 2004.' The report from Gartner Dataquest revealed that ILOG led in the worldwide business rule engine...

ILOG came out on tops in Gartner Dataquest's detailed market analysis entitled 'Market Share: Business Rule Engine Software, Worldwide, 2004.' The report from Gartner Dataquest revealed that ILOG led in the worldwide business rule engine software market in 2004 with 18.1 percent market share, based on license revenue. ILOG's double-digit year-over-year growth in 2004 of 17.6 percent reflected growing market acceptance of business rule solutions, according to the report. The report also indicated that the total worldwide Business Rule Engine (BRE) software market experienced double-digit year-over-year growth from 2003 through 2004 and that 'growth is anticipated to continue as BREs deliver business process efficiencies, improved integration, enhanced development tools and data access.'

The research also states, 'business users want to change rules without going through a long-running change process that is, at best, measured in days and, at worst, measured in weeks and months. BREs allow end users to make dynamic real-time changes to their applications in an abstracted level of language.'"

Marketing Management Networking PR - Fair Isaac Offers Deepest Rules Platform: "Fair Isaac Offers Deepest Rules Platform
Posted on Wednesday, January 25 @ 10:55:00 CST by xtv


webitpr writes '
Fair Isaac offers 'Deepest Rules Platform' according to independent research firm in new Business Rules report. New Fair Isaac Blaze Advisor 6.1 integrates Rete III technology.


London, UK, January 25, 2006 (XTVWorld.Com) -- Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FIC), a leading provider of analytics and decision management technology, today announced that Forrester Research, Inc. has positioned the company as a Leader in business rules platforms. Forrester�s recognition coincides with Fair Isaac�s release of Blaze Advisor 6.1, an enhanced version of the company�s industry-leading rules management system."

Computerworld > Oracle packages middleware as SOA suite: "Oracle packages middleware as SOA suite
News
Integration, common management tools part of package. By Paul Krill
By Paul Krill, Auckland Monday, 23 January, 2006

......
Components of the suite include Oracle BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) Process Manager, for mapping out business process flows, Oracle Enterprise Service Bus (for connecting existing IT systems and business partners as a set of services), Oracle Web Services Manager (providing a console for setting Web services policies) and Oracle Business Rules Engine (for defining and managing business rules).
...more"

Simple Business Rules for Business Intelligence: "Simple Business Rules for Business Intelligence

by David Loshin
Published: January 23, 2006
For organizations to effectively eliminate confusion, they must employ standard definitions to describe simple business rules."

EFYTimes.com - Latest technology news, india, international, electronics, IT and telecom news: "Forrester Rates YASU BRMS Platform As Top Performer
EFY News Network

(Saturday, January 21, 2006 3:04:11 PM)



QuickRules BRMS provides strong business rules platform at low prices.

Saturday, January 21, 2006: Forrester has accorded the �top strong performer� status to YASU Technologies� flagship BRMS Platform, QuickRules BRMS. Forrester evaluated BRMS products in the market using 174 criteria grouped into three major categories � current offering, strategy and market presence. It concluded that YASU Technologies will likely be �the surprise of the analysis� and it provides a �strong business rules platform� with �very aggressive list prices�. ...more"

blackenterprise.com: "IRS Tightens Business Rules Management
2006-01-20



By Mary Mosquera, GCN Staff

The IRS has put in place processes to manage the business rules that drive its new taxpayer database in response to issues that challenged the agency's Business Systems Modernization program.

But the IRS still needs to clarify its plans for using business rules and a business rules engine in future development of the Customer Account Data Engine, according to a recent report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

The IRS has been considering using a business rules engine for its modernized taxpayer database, the Customer Account Data Engine (CADE). A business rules engine is software that selects and executes business rules, such as tax transactions, based on the tax year and tax form.

IRS tested pilot business rules methodology, established evaluation criteria for proposals to acquire a business rules repository, and started the Submission and Settlement Harvesting Project (SSHP) last March.

The SSHP is designed to identify business redesign opportunities for submission and settlement aspects of electronic tax return processing, direct high-level business rule sets to modernized systems and identify architectural alternatives. Harvesting describes activities in gathering, analyzing and validating business rules for a particular area.

The IRS also tested a Business Rules End-to-End Prototype to determine when to use business rules engine technology, programming languages or a combination of the two in implementing business rules within CADE and validating the business rules harvesting approach.

..more"

OnStar Moving to SOA: "OnStar Moving to SOA

Friday January 20, 2006 6:45 PM EST - By: Dave White
Via: TechWeb


OnStar, the voice-driven service that calmly helps drivers in difficulty, is migrating its technology platform from Web services to service-oriented architecture, the company said late Thursday.

The idea is to insert a business layer in the software rules in order to remove redundant code and improve processing and efficiency. The initial phase of the process began in May 2005, and the official launch was a month later. The final procedures are expected to be completed in 2006.

The software business rules that make up large parts of the OnStar experience are embedded in applications now. The move to SOA will make it easier in the future to update and refine the OnStar framework, as well as to interface with third-party applications.

'It will allow us to reuse different functions and business processes more easily,' said Kathy Kay, OnStar director of application development and support. 'We will pull out functions to create separate processes.'"

: 7 Valentine's Day Rules for Workplace Relationships
NewsReleaseWire.com (press release) - USA
... If you are dating your boss, have your reporting relationship changed. 6. REMEMBER THAT BUSINESS RULES APPLY IN BUSINESS-RELATED SOCIAL FUNCTIONS. ...

http://be.sys-con.com/read/172320.htm: "ILOG Receives Highest Score for Strategy in Java Business Rules Platform
'The Forrester Wave: Business Rules Platforms, Q1 2006' says ILOG JRules is 'Strong Across the Board'
By: JDJ News Desk
Jan. 18, 2006 08:00 PM


ILOG has announced that it has been named the strategic market leader in the recently published report 'The Forrester Wave: Business Rules Platforms, Q1 2006,' by Forrester's John R. Rymer. In the report, Forrester also concludes that ILOG is a leader in business rules platforms based on the strength of its ILOG JRules solution for the Java platform and highlights ILOG's position as the strategy leader for the category. The report states that the business rule market has strong growth as users seek automated processes, and that the market will continue that growth trend, with revenues and client interest both rising. ILOG was recently named market share leader by two other leading IT research firms.

'The Forrester Wave: Business Rules Platforms, Q1 2006' published January 2006 is a comprehensive lab-based evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the top business rules software vendors, ranked across 174 criteria. According to the report, ILOG is ahead on strategy for the category, noting that, 'ILOG JRules is strong across the board' and 'leads in business rules platforms for Java' calling JRules 'one of the leading choices for enterprise platforms for cooperative development of business rules applications by IT developers and business users.'

The report continues, 'ILOG JRules has a strong architecture as a general-purpose rules platform, including flexible rule processing, solid data access features, and strong support for service orientation.' ...more"

Haley Systems Leads In Business Rules Platforms For Business Analysts, Says Forrester Research Tekrati Research News: "Haley Systems Leads In Business Rules Platforms For Business Analysts, Says Forrester Research


Forrester Research - January 11, 2006

Haley Systems, Inc., a leading provider of business rules management systems, has been cited as the leading business rules platform for business analysts in a new Forrester Research Wave(TM) report on Business Rules Platforms. The report also rates Haley as a strong performer in three other market categories: business rules platforms for IT, Java developers and .NET developers. Free download at the Haley Web site.
...more"

.......................
The Business Rules Community's
Business Rules Journal (BRJ) Update
January, 2006 Vol 7 No. 1
.......................
** New in 2006 ... Expanded Line-Up of Columns ** The BRCommunity is pleased to announce an exciting new Perspectives section. In addition to our existing outstanding columnists, we welcome:
* In the Know, by Bonnie O'Neil
* Not Just the Decision Table Guy, by Jan Vanthienen
* Zen & the Art of BR Implementation, by Mark Myers (coming in Feb.)
**The Business Rules Manifesto now available in Spanish and Lithuanian** The Manifesto is now available in 7 languages ... also including Dutch, English, French, German, and Turkish. More to come soon!
URL: http://businessrulesgroup.org/brmanifesto.htm
** Business Motivation Model now an OMG Adopted Standard ** Release 1.2 of the BRG's "Business Motivation Model: Business Governance in a Volatile World" has been accepted as an OMG Standard. To find out more about this ground-breaking work, visit http://www.businessrulesgroup.org/
** Also New in Perspectives ... SBVR Speaks ** In recognition of OMG's groundbreaking newly adopted standard "Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules", the BRJ is publishing a carefully selected series of extracts throughout 2006.
Find out what the excitement about SBVR is all about!
.......................
In this issue of your periodic Business Rules Journal Update...
1. The Role of Rule Analyst (part 2), by Kristen Seer
2. Premise & Conclusion: How Rules and Processes Relate ~ Part 4.
Business Processes vs. System Processes, by Ronald G. Ross
3. In Process: Best Practices of Process Management: The Top
Ten Principles (part 1), by Roger T. Burlton
4. Not Just the Decision Table Guy: 50 Ways to Represent your
Rule Sets, by Jan Vanthienen
5. In The Know: Reflections on Knowledge Management and Business
Rules, by Bonnie O'Neil
6. SBVR Speaks: The Five Major Aspects of SBVR
7. Technology Review: Applying an Open-source Business Rule Engine
to Questionnaire Response Validation, by Caspar Fall

If you'd like to read all our articles on the web, visit:
http://www.brcommunity.com/

1. The Role of Rule Analyst (part 2), by Kristen Seer
...............................................................
As an organization matures in the business rules approach, there
arises a growing recognition of the value of managing business rules
over the long term. This generally leads to the next logical step --
establishing a rule management function. One of the critical success
factors of this function is the development of a new role -- that of
Rule Analyst. In this month's feature, Kristen Seer explores the set
of skills a Rule Analyst needs and discusses what the job of Rule
Analyst really entails.
to read more, visit:
http://www.BRCommunity.com/a2006/b264.html

2. Premise & Conclusion: How Rules and Processes Relate ~ Part 4.
Business Processes vs. System Processes, by Ronald G. Ross
...............................................................
What is the fundamental difference between a model of a business process
and a model of a process in an information system? Why is the distinction
so important as we move toward a world of rule-friendly processes? In
this month's column, the fourth of a 6-part series (excerpted from the
just-released second edition of Business Rule Concepts: Getting to the
Point of Knowledge), Ron Ross answers these and related questions,
setting the stage for building 'throwaway' procedures.
to read more, visit:
http://www.BRCommunity.com/a2006/b265.html

3. In Process: Best Practices of Process Management: The Top
Ten Principles (part 1), by Roger T. Burlton
...............................................................
Years of successful (and not-so-successful) process management
experience have led to a set of best practices -- a number of
fundamental principles that must be honored in order to optimize
returns to the company, the delivery of business results to
customers, and to satisfy the needs of the organization’s other
stakeholders. In this series, Roger Burlton outlines the ten
principles that underlie the methods of business process
operation and change. In this month's column, he discusses the
first principle.
to read more, visit:
http://www.BRCommunity.com/a2006/b269.html

4. Not Just the Decision Table Guy: 50 Ways to Represent your
Rule Sets, by Jan Vanthienen
...............................................................
As the number of business rules we model increases, effective means to
capture, visualize, and manage entire sets of rules at a time become more
important for the business. A significant number of rules share the same
subject, have similar evaluation terms, or similar outcomes. Although
each business rule can (and should) be considered on its own, there are
good reasons to study an entire set of rules. The representation of a
set of rules is important for various quality reasons -- specifying the
rules, verifying the specification, and maintaining the rules. In his
inaugural column, Jan Vanthienen illustrates how not every representation
is equally suited for each of these purposes.
to read more, visit:
http://www.BRCommunity.com/a2006/b266.html

5. In The Know: Reflections on Knowledge Management and Business
Rules, by Bonnie O'Neil
...............................................................
This month launches another new column, "In The Know" by Bonnie O'Neil.
"I plan on exploring the intersection of our Business Rules discipline and
the broad area of 'Knowledge Management'," she writes. This month, Bonnie
urges some 'architectural thinking', sharing some of her thoughts on business
rules and the data warehouse.
to read more, visit:
http://www.BRCommunity.com/a2006/b267.html

6. SBVR Speaks: The Five Major Aspects of SBVR
...............................................................
In September 2005, the Object Management Group (OMG) approved the "Semantics
of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules" (SBVR) to become a final adopted
specification of the OMG. In this month's installment of "SBVR Speaks
(for itself)" continues with a look at the five major aspects of SBVR.
to read more, visit:
http://www.BRCommunity.com/a2006/b268.html

7. Technology Review: Applying an Open-source Business Rule Engine
to Questionnaire Response Validation
...............................................................
Caspar Fall describes his company's experience in developing a low-cost
solution in a .NET architecture with an open-source rule engine. A major
requirement was a user-friendly interface, often lacking in low-cost and
open-source rule engines. The selected engine, NxBRE, meets this
requirement with a GUI based on Microsoft Visio.
to read more, visit:
http://www.BRCommunity.com/a2006/n013.html


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