Every time I meet a new person and have the regular get-to-know-you conversation, I get the typical questions: Where are you from? What do you do? Where do you work? What do they do? Now, working for InRule, I face an additional question: what is a business rules engine? It has become obvious that many people – at least people in my world – do not know the answer to this question. To help my new friends and the silent techies who also may not know about business rules and business rules engines, here is a short summary.
What are business rules?
To start, let me quickly define business rules. Business rules are guidelines that help you determine, define or constrain the criteria or conditions that help you make a decision. These decisions affect certain aspects of a business.
Think about when you apply for a loan. There are questions that you must answer in order to get a loan, and your answers determine whether you qualify for the loan.
The Application of Business Rules in Real Life: A Loan Application Example
In most loan processing applications, there are various rules that fire based on your responses to questions. If you answer yes to one question or no to another question, your chances of approval for a loan will be impacted, and the subsequent questions will vary. These rules help guide you through the application process and help the company determine your eligibility and structure their business.
Introduction to Business Rules Management Systems (BRMS)
A business rules engine is part of a larger system called a business rules management system, or a BRMS. In part two of Back to Basics, I’ll discuss what a BRMS is, how a BRE sits inside of it, and examples of its use.
You can also jump straight to our in-depth guide to understanding Business Rules Engine
Whether you’re a new friend who has no idea what I do for a living, or a techy who wanted to learn more about business rules engines, I hope you found this summary to be helpful. If you have any more questions, feel free to drop me a line below in the comments section.
Editor’s Notes: Be sure to read Part 2 of Pete’s series here.
Map your Automation Path
Additionally, if you’re looking to gain a better understanding of where your organization falls on its decision automation journey, take our Decision Automation Readiness Test (the DART). A personalized report, the DART explores different stages and chasms of decision automation.
We examine everything from using collective knowledge to make business decisions, to embracing machine learning and decision platforms for predictive and adaptive decisioning. We’ll show you where you’re at, and the next steps your organization can take for continued growth and development—not to mention opportunities for greater efficiency and cost savings.
