OpenRules Overview

     4Business Rules Approach
     4Excel + Java + Eclipse
     4Excel as the most popular tool used by Business Analysts today
          4Eclipse as the most popular IDE
          4Performance and Scalability

Business Rules Approach

If you want to put your business analysts (not programmers) in control of the complex business logic of your mission-critical applications, you have probably already committed to the Business Rules Approach.  You are most likely familiar with a sound BR Methodology and leading commercial business rule engines such as ILOG and Blaze.  Now you want to configure a Business Rules Management System (BRMS) that fits your own specific needs in the best possible way while, at the same time, minimize license fees, software integration expenses, and learning curve of your specialists.

 

OpenRules, de-facto the most popular Open Source BRMS, may give you what you are looking for.  Additionally, OpenRules supports rules-based web application development and integrates BR with Machine Learning and Optimization techniques.

Excel + Java + Eclipse

A combination of Excel, Eclipse, and Open Source Tools, backed by OpenRules support, forms a practical framework for full-scale Business Rules Management and rules-based Web Application Development. OpenRules embodies an ingenious software architecture that maximizes customizability and is open to any integration solution. Extensive reuse of proven, commonly available software results in a framework that matches or exceeds similar commercial systems in speed, compactness, and ease of use.

EXCEL as the most popular tool used by Business Analysts today

Excel as a Rule Editor.  Business analysts usually use MS Office tools such as MS Excel™ or Word™ to present business rules.  Most rule engine vendors provide proprietary "Excel-like" tools for rules administration.  Thus, after selecting any commercial BRMS, you still have to map your Excel tables into a new environment.  Why not use MS Excel directly as your business rules management tool?  After all, it is the de-facto standard that provides a familiar user interface with numerous powerful features and it does not commit your personnel to a lengthy learning curve.  With Free Open Source Tools available from OpenRules, your business analysts can create, modify, and execute business rules directly in Excel!  Along with Excel you can use OpenOffice and Google Spreadsheets - see Rule Editors.

Excel as a Web Form Editor.  To create and support Web interfaces most companies have to rely on IT specialists because they use technologies such as HTML, JScript, JSP/ASP, PHP, etc.  Why not use MS Excel directly as your Web Form management tool?  With Free Open Source Tools available from OpenRules, your business analysts can create Web Forms directly in Excel!  These tools allow a non-technical user to define complex web form layouts and associated interaction logic in simple Excel tables.  Forms drawn in MS Excel spreadsheets are automatically translated into HTML pages without limiting the expressiveness of HTML.  Thus, without any need to learn a new formatting language or tool, an experienced user can add standard HTML tags and properties directly into Excel layouts in order to beatify the generated forms.

ECLIPSE as the most popular IDE used by Software Developers today

Despite a desire to minimize the role of IT, you do need professional software developers to assist business analysts in rule automation and integration with the existing software infrastructure.  Nowadays, Free Open Source Eclipse IDE is the most powerful de-facto standard tool for software project management. With Free Open Source Tools available from OpenRules your software developers can naturally integrate Excel-based business rules into their complex Eclipse projects! Using Eclipse enables them to automatically inherit hundreds of powerful features from rules debugging to rules versioning and Web Service deployment. In addition, they gain a natural access to thousands of 3rd party Java tools!

Performance and Scalability