Method and system for configuring rules for execution
View Patent ↗Data-driven rules are eliminated from an application, and replaced with goal-driven rules that formally and completely characterize high-level business concepts, while enabling the resulting goal-driven rules to be executed eagerly using a forward chaining rule engine in a way that preserves the data-driven behavior of the original rules. A computer-implemented method for executing business rules provides a unified rule that encapsulates a goal-oriented rule with triggering information selected from dependencies of the goal-oriented rule. The unified rule may be eagerly executed in response to changes in data specified by the dependencies, or lazily executed in response to a request for the value computed by the rule.
1. A computer-implemented method for executing business rules, the method comprising:
providing a unified rule that encapsulates a goal-oriented rule with triggering information selected from dependencies of the goal oriented rule; and
eagerly executing the unified rule using a rule engine, in response to changes in data specified by the dependencies, wherein the rule engine is selected from a forward-chaining rule engine and a hybrid rule engine.
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the dependencies are determined from explicit statements.
3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein potential dependencies are derived from the rule and output for confirmation.
4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the rule engine is a hybrid rule engine, further comprising:
on-demand executing the unified rule using backward chaining, in response to requests for information computed by the unified rule.
5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the eagerly executing initiates a communication to a customer.
6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , wherein the communication includes one of: a telephone call, a text message, and an audio and/or visual communication.
7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, based on the eager execution of the unified rule, a business measure.
8. A computer-implemented method for analyzing a business rule for bill payment timeliness, comprising:
determining that a payment has been made for a bill;
responsive to determining that the payment has been made for a bill, triggering a rule to determine timeliness of the payment, wherein the rule is expressed in a goal oriented manner; and
executing the rule using a forward chaining rule engine to determine if the bill payment is timely.
9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising receiving the rule via a graphical user interface.
10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising receiving a set of dependencies for the rule.
11. A system for analyzing a business rule for bill payment timeliness, comprising:
an event handler configured to determine that a payment has been made for a bill;
a triggering component configured to, responsive to determining that the payment has been made for the bill, trigger a rule to determine timeliness of the payment, wherein the rule is expressed in a goal-oriented manner; and
a forward chaining rule engine configure to execute the rule to determine if the bill payment is timely.
12. The system of claim 11 , further comprising a graphical user interface configured to receive the rule.