A rule is a principle or condition that typically governs behavior. It can be said to be a guideline that implies an obligation related to conduct, action, practice, or procedure within a specific activity or area. 

In a business context, a business rule is a condition that must be enforced in the conduct of business activities; therefore, it defines or restricts some aspect of the company. 

The management of business policies greatly contributes to greater agility and flexibility. Rule management systems externalize business logic and separate it from the underlying computational infrastructure.
This results in the following immediate benefits:

⇨  Complete Identification of Rules: What rules are actually being used? Often, this is unclear. Consider how many conditions (which are essentially business rules) are embedded in codes accessible only to IT personnel, remaining hidden—and even forgotten! 

⇨  Consistency with Business Strategy: Are different and often conflicting sets of rules being applied? Are they aligned with the company’s strategic planning? Effective management of business rules should consider the company’s policies. 

⇨  Greater Control and Management at the Corporate Level: Without requiring technical knowledge of the implemented systems, business users can manage the rules directly, independently from other systems, without the risk of getting caught up in methodologies and codings filled with unreadable terms. 

⇨  Enhanced Scalability: This allows for the evolution of business rules. 

⇨  Anticipation and Forecasting of Scenarios: The ability to create simulation scenarios, independent of currently implemented systems, allows the organization to test its response to specific business events or occurrences.  

⇨ Efficiency: The flexibility to adjust business policies enables a quicker and more agile response to changes in the sector. 

Considerations in Choosing a Business Rule Management System 

A good business rule manager should meet the following needs:  

⇨ Facilitate the management of discovery, updating, testing, simulation, and deployment of rules. 

⇨ Create and maintain business decisions without the need for coding, meaning it should be user-friendly for business users. 

⇨ Provide role-based user management. 

⇨ Update and deploy business policies quickly and effectively across different environments.  

At Habber Tec, we develop business solutions with business rules based on IBM Operational Decision Manager (IBM ODM) technology. If you’ve made it to the end of this post, we’d like to offer you a free initial Design Thinking meeting. Just click here, and we will contact you as soon as possible.