Decision Management is a powerful approach to implementing business rules and analytics. Decision management is currently being used successfully in many decision centric applications such as next best action, marketing offer selection, fraud detection and instant credit decisions but decision management has not yet had the standards and tool set needed for widespread adoption.
With the recent publication of the Decision Model and Notation beta standard, business analysts now have a standard approach and a growing ecosystem of tools to describe decision making for all applications as part of the requirements process.
Today business analysts use a variety of techniques to accurately describe the requirements for an information system. Business process models are often used to describe workflows but local exceptions about decision-making can quickly overwhelm process models. Identifying and modeling decisions separately from the process means these local exceptions no longer clutter up the process. This makes business processes simpler, focuses business rules and analytics and makes it easier to make changes.
The Decision Management approach starts by identifying the decisions that will deliver the targeted business benefit and models these decisions before considering how business rules and/or analytics will be used to improve them. The Decision Model Notation Standard (DMN) provides a standard and vendor neutral approach to incorporating decision modeling as part of the requirements process.
The Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) standard has been an important framework and catalyst for business process skills adoption. DMN will provide a similar framework and catalyst for decision management skills adoption.
For more information, read our white papers on Decision Modeling for Business Rules Projects and Decision Modeling for Predictive Analytics Projects.
You can also sign up for a free evaluation of DecisionsFirst Modeler, our cloud-based decision modeling tool. We also have some great starter services to help get you up and running quickly.
Decision Management Solutions was a submitter of the approved Decision Model and Notation beta standard to the Object Management Group together with Escape Velocity, FICO, IBM, KU Leuven, Knowledge Partners International, Model Systems, Oracle and TIBCO.