The Decision Model: A Business Logic Framework Linking Business and Technology

About the Book

In the current fast-paced and constantly changing business environment, it is more important than ever for organizations to be agile, monitor business performance, and meet with increasingly stringent compliance requirements. Written by pioneering consultants and bestselling authors with track records of international success, The Decision Model: A Business Logic Framework Linking Business and Technology provides a platform for rethinking how to view, design, execute, and govern business logic. The book explains how to implement the Decision Model, a stable, rigorous model of core business logic that informs current and emerging technology. The authors supply a strong theoretical foundation, while succinctly defining the path needed to incorporate agile and iterative techniques for developing a model that will be the cornerstone for continual growth. Because the book introduces a new model with tentacles in many disciplines, it is divided into three sections: Section 1: A Complete overview of the Decision Model and its place in the business and technology world Section 2: A Detailed treatment of the foundation of the Decision Model and a formal definition of the Model Section 3: Specialized topics of interest on the Decision Model, including both business and technical issues The Decision Model provides a framework for organizing business rules into well-formed decision-based structures that are predictable, stable, maintainable, and normalized. More than this, the Decision Model directly correlates business logic to the business drivers behind it, allowing it to be used as a lever for meeting changing business objectives and marketplace demands. This book not only defines the Decision Model and but also demonstrates how it can be used to organize decision structures for maximum stability, agility, and technology independence and provide input into automation design.

Table of Contents:
The Decision Model in Context. Why the Decision Model? An Overview of the Decision Model. The Business Value of Decision Models. Changing the Game: BPM and BDM. SOA and the Decision Model. How the Decision Model Improves Requirements, Business Analysis, and Testing. Getting Started. The Decision Model in Detail. The Structural Principles. The Declarative Principles. The Integrity Principles. At a Glance: The Decision Model and the Relational Model. The Decision Model Formally Defined. COMMentaries. Enterprise Architecture: Managing Complexity and Change. Opportunities in Enterprise Architecture. Service-Oriented Architectures. Specifications, Standards, Practices, and the Decision Model. Integrating the Decision Model with BPMN. The Case for the Physical Decision Model. Enterprise Decision Management and the Decision Model. Introducing the Business Decision Maturity Model. The Decision Model and Enterprise 2.0: Enabling Collaboration. A Management Perspective. Better! Cheaper! Faster! Bibliography.

About the Author :

Barbara von Halle is managing partner of Knowledge Partners International LLC (KPI) and the recipient of the 1995 International DAMA Outstanding Individual Achievement Award. Known as a pioneer in data architecture and business rules, she is co-developer of the Decision Model. Barbara's previous publications include Business Rules Applied (John Wiley & Sons) and The Handbook of Relational Database Design (Addison-Wesley). She also served as co-editor of Auerbach's series Handbook of Data Management, and was a popular columnist in Database Programming and Design magazine for years.

Larry Goldberg is managing partner of Knowledge Partners International LLC (KPI) and is co-developer of the Decision Model. Larry currently serves as the editor of the Business Decision Management Bulletin (a monthly electronic publication) and as chair of the Business Decision Symposium series of BPMInstitute.org Conferences. Larry has founded several software companies, leading them through acquisitions. Prior to joining KPI, he sold a company to Sapiens Americas Corporation and served as Senior VP Sapiens Americas Corporation.

Review :
This is an important book: it has important things to say about an especially important set of real-world problems--business rules ! The authors weave their business rule methodology together with the whole complex of other major business/technology areas, including business decision models, business process management, SOA, and requirement definitions ! shows how a new way of using rules located in a common evaluation module can greatly simplify a business process and make it far easier to modify when the need arises. --From the Foreword by Ken Orr, Topeka, Kansas ! one of the classic books of a new era in computing ! --Opher Etzion, IBM Research Laboratory Haifa ! a significant addition to our industry's body of knowledge. --Dave Hay, Capgemini Financial Services and Bestselling Author ! on the mark ! a roadmap to successful use of business rules. --Arne Herenstein, Insurance Industry Executive ! a new approach to improve the elicitation and quality of functional requirements and corresponding test cases in the development of systems . --William D. Miller, Stevens Institute of Technology ! may very well change the way we define information systems in the future. --Nadav Nahshon, Enterprise Data Architect I expect the Decision Model to inspire developers of business rule mining and authoring technologies for years to come. --Mannes Nauer, Software Expert ! a must for all of us who wish to break down our business rules and integrate them into the rest of our metadata systems. --Robert Schork, DAMA-NJ and Meta-Data Professional Organization ! explains how to apply the model to directly benefit requirements planning, business processes, enterprise architecture and enterprise decision-making. --Robert S. Seiner, KIK Consulting and TDAN.com ! covers the full spectrum of what you need to know when adopting decision management. --Carole-Ann Matignon, FICO ! provides a framework and model that takes our field to the next level ! --Len Silverston, Bestselling Author ! presents a formal, and yet practical, model for business logic and business rules ! --Andrew Spanyi, Bestselling Author I suspect this will be the handbook in this area for quite some time and a must read for all levels in IT today. --Thomas Wolfe, Capricorn Technology Group