Identifying a set of rules

The primary function of the Business console is to let you author business rules. A rule that you author does not exist by itself, however, and is organized as part of a greater set of rules. Identifying what set of rules you are ultimately working on is key in understanding how to manage rules.

The first level of identification is the decision service. Rules are stored within rule projects contained in a decision service.

Branches

The second level of identification is through branches. Starting from the rules contained in a rule project, Decision Center uses branches to manage rules over time. A branch of a rule project starts with the same rules as the parent, but then allows for a separate evolution of the same rules. Branches can be as follows:

  • Releases and change activities of a decision service. Releases and change activities are governed branches because they are used within the decision governance framework, and they have their own characteristics (see Managing changes with the decision governance framework).
  • A regular branch of a decision service, stemming from the main branch. This allows for work on a decision service without the decision governance framework.
  • Snapshots of any branches can also be considered branches because they represent a read-only state of the rules of a branch at a past moment in time.

Decision operations

Finally, the third level of identification is the decision operation. The decision operation further identifies which rules from a given branch are deployed or used for testing. Not all the rules contained in the branch that you are working on are necessarily destined to be validated or deployed. For example, you may want to test or deploy only those rules that are Ready to be tested or whose status is deployable. The decision operation defines which rules are included in the operation.

In the Business console, you choose which decision operation to use when creating a test suite, simulation, or deployment configuration. Information relating to a decision operation is visible when you select it when creating the test suite, simulation, or deployment configuration.