"SOAs and business rules are two of the hottest and most misunderstood topics in our industry. Graham's book does a very good job of explaining these concepts and presenting their symbiotic relationship to each other." --David Marco, President, EWSolutions, Author of "Universal Meta Data Model" and "Building and Managing the Meta Data Repository" Universally Recognized as the world's leading authority on Meta Data Management. Business rules management system (BRMS) is a software tool that works alongside enterprise IT applications. It enables businesses to automate decision-making processes. Business rules represent any type of business data such as policies, procedures or regulations that define or constrain some aspect of a business. International expert Ian Graham reveals best practice in modern enterprise system development. He clearly demonstrates how to align IT with business goals. Business Rules Management and Service Oriented Architecture will give you a greater understanding of: * The need for service-oriented architecture; * How the former depends on component-based development; * The technical features of a BRMS; * How to create a pattern language for BRMS development. A BRMS could enable your business to reap the rewards of lower maintenance costs, greater business agility, enhanced decision-making and increased revenue. Strengthen your business by deploying this approach.

Ian Graham is an industry consultant with over 20 year's experience. He is recognized internationally as an authority on business modelling, object-oriented software development methods and expert systems. He has a significant public presence, being associated with both UK and international professional organizations, and is frequently quoted in the IT and financial press.

Ian is well known as a public speaker and writer on advanced computing and has published over 60 articles and papers. His books, Object-Oriented Methods and Migrating to Object Technology are rated best sellers in their field.

Foreword. Preface. 1 Aligning IT with Business. 1.1 Historical Background. 1.2 What are Business Rules? 1.3 What is Business Rules Management? 1.4 Why use a Business Rules Management System? 1.5 The Benefits. 1.6 Summary. 1.7 Bibliographical Notes. 2 Service Oriented Architecture and Software Components. 2.1 Service Oriented Architecture and Business Rules. 2.2 Service Implementation using Components. 2.3 Agents and Rules. 2.4 Service Oriented Architecture andWeb Services. 2.5 Adoption Strategies. 2.6 Summary. 2.7 Bibliographical Notes. 3 Approaches to Business Rules. 3.1 Database-centric Approaches. 3.2 GUIDE and the Business Rules Group. 3.3 Using UML and OCL to Express Rules. 3.4 Business Rules Management Systems and Expert Systems. 3.5 Other Developments. 3.6 Standards, Directions and Trends. 3.7 Summary. 3.8 Bibliographical Notes. 4 Business Rules Management Technology and Terminology. 4.1 Rules and Other Forms of Knowledge Representation. 4.2 Knowledge and Inference. 4.3 Inference in Business Rules Management Systems. 4.4 Data Mining and Rule Induction. 4.5 Techniques for Representing Rules. 4.6 Uncertainty Management. 4.7 Ontology and Epistemology: the RÆole of Object Modelling in. Natural Language Processing. 4.8 Summary. 4.9 Bibliographical Notes. 5 Features of Business Rules Management Systems. 5.1 The Components and Technical Features of a BRMS. 5.2 BRMS Products. 5.3 A Simple Application. 5.4 Usability Issues. 5.5 Summary. 5.6 Bibliographical Notes. 6 Development Methods. 6.1 Knowledge Acquisition and Analysis. 6.2 System Development. 6.3 Halle's Guidelines. 6.4 Rule Style Guidance. 6.5 Summary. 6.6 Bibliographical Notes. 7 A Pattern Language for BRMS Development. 7.1 What are Patterns? 7.2 Why a Pattern Language? 7.3 The RulePatterns Language - Part I. 7.4 The RulePatterns Language - Part II. 7.5 Related Patterns and Pattern Languages. APPENDICES. A The Business Rules Manifesto. B A Simple Method for Evaluating BRMS Products. References and Bibliography. Index.