While the cloud continues to dramatically change the landscape of middleware and service delivery, there remains a more subtle shift in the way we think about data and it’s lifecycle. Data changes over time. In the end, we are left with a quandry.
- What factors ultimately drive this change?
- When does data “arrive”?
- How does it arrive?
- Who owns it?
- How easily can we inject data and still expect it be represent a valid state?
It’s one thing to suggest that decisions are everywhere; however, recently I have taken up the position that rules can do more. They can be foundational.
Earlier this year I published a white paper entitled Case Management Patterns and Practice Using InRule and Salesforce.com. This was my first paper where I start to outline the lifecycle of data and its relationship to rules, events, change and time. I believe cases are a perfect place understand the true nature of data as it touches all kinds of business processes.
New Strategies for Rule Discovery
As a secondary point, I explored the use of “Design Thinking” strategies for rule discovery. Design thinking has been changing the software industry for some time and it should be no surprise that it can help us find our decisions and hidden opportunity. I plan on returning to this thread in blog posts and a white paper some time in the future.
I hope you enjoy the paper and look forward to your comments.