BPM101.pdf

1

BPM101

Overview of

SAP NetWeaver Business Rules

Management

Arti GopalanProduct Management BPM/BRM &

Composition

Solution Management SOA & BPM

Technology Group, SAP Labs India

TechEd Speaker: Vienna & Bangalore

Michael HillSolution Management SOA & BPM

IPG+NW Solution Management - Market

Development & Enablement

TechEd Speaker: Phoenix

© SAP AG 2009. All rights reserved. / Page 2

Disclaimer

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2


Agenda

1. Introduction

What are Business Rules?

Enforcing Business Rules

Typical Customer Challenges with Conventional Methods

Solving these Challenges with Business Rules Management

BRM in the Real World – A Real World Case Study

2. SAP NetWeaver Business Rules Management Offers

Easier implementation of Complex Business Rules

End to End Change Management

Tight integration with BPM

Reusable Rules!

Divider headline

3. SAP NetWeaver BRM as Technology

Building Blocks

Business Rules & BPM – A Deep Dive

4. Live Product Demo

5. SAP NetWeaver BRM Scope and Roadmap




Business Rules represent the constraints on behavior of the business

The policies and guidelines which drive business decisions

Business Rules are owned by LoB and not by IT.

Example - Interest Rate Calculation Example for IT Rules

Database Constraints

Object Model Rules

3


Examples from Across Industries

Telecom Content Based Customizable Billing

Insurance New Products, Claims Settlement, Agent Commissions

Mortgage Eligibility, Pricing, Underwriting

Logistics & Shipping Parts Management, Duties Calculations, Pricing Calculations

Public Sector Tax Calculations, Customs Duties, Land Regulations, License Fee

Calculations

Stock Exchanges Alert Engines

Education Fee Calculations, Course Selections

CRM Quotations, Campaigns, Discounts, Recommendations, Pricing, Cross Sell

HealthCare Claims, Patient Monitoring, Fraud Detection

Banking Relationship based Pricing, Scorecards, Credit Decisioning

Rules are Ubiquitous. Rules are Everywhere !!


Types of Business Rules – A Compilation

Validation Rules Claim Validation, Loan Application Validation

Rate Calculation Rules Computation of Taxes, Interest Rates, Sales Commissions, Premiums,

Bonuses, Duties

Decision Rules Is Applicant Eligible for a Loan Product? Can this good be cleared by

Customs?

Recommendation Rules Marketing Promotions, Medical Recommendations, Online Product

Chooser

Personalization Rules Website Personalization, Product Personalization , Relationship

Personalization

Internationalization &

Localization Rules

International Products e.g. Maintaining similar Insurance products

across countries, Cross border Custom Duties

Exceptions and Special Rules Exceptions, Special Accounts , Special Arrangements, etc.

Optimization and Configuration

Rules

Product Configuration, Deal Configuration

4


Enforcing Business Rules –

Conventional Methods

Rules inside Code

Business

User

Rules

Roles

UI

Workflow

& Task

Event

Data

Process Context

Create Claim

Analyze Budget Impact

Analyze Resource Impact

Rules

Roles

UI

Workflow

& Task

Event

Data

Process Context

Create Claim



Out

of

stock

Product

15 min

Reple-

nish-

ment

order

Out

of

stock

Product

15 min

Reple-

nish-

ment

order

Business

Expert

Rules

Roles

UI

Workflow

& Task

Event

Data

Process Context

Create Claim



Rules

Roles

UI

Workflow

& Task

Event

Data

Process Context

Create Claim



Out

of

stock

Product

15 min

Reple-

nish-

ment

order

Out

of

stock

Product

15 min

Reple-

nish-

ment

order

Business

Analyst

Rules

Roles

UI

Workflow

& Task

Event

Data

Process Context

Create Claim



Rules

Roles

UI

Workflow

& Task

Event

Data

Process Context

Create Claim



Out

of

stock

Product

15 min

Reple-

nish-

ment

order

Out

of

stock

Product

15 min

Reple-

nish-

ment

order

Rules as Tacit Knowledge

Rules In Documents

Rules inside Database

Sales Commissions

Premium Calculations

…

Triggers Stored Procedures


Typical Customer Challenges

Zero visibility into business decisions

■ Critical business rules are locked in code or databases

■ Business has no visibility into how systems take decisions

Change resistant IT systems

■ Business rules can be very volatile

■ Hardwired business rules make change difficult for IT

■ Unacceptably long testing and change cycle times

■ High costs of correction and rework

Inefficient and Costly Human Experts

■ Need to maintain a pool of trained experts

■ Continuous training and hiring costs

■ Very complex rules and error prone & time consuming human decision making

Scattered knowledge

■ Business rules not centrally managed

■ Scattered across code, manuals and as tacit knowledge

■ Inadequate, ambiguous and inconsistent business rules across the Enterprise

■ High risk of compliance violation

5


Enter Business Rules Management …

With BRM You Get

Externalize critical business

rules

Agile and maintainable

Systems

Model executable complex

business rules

Automate key business

decisions

(Centrally) manage business

rules

Consistent application of

corporate policy and

government regulations

Business Users can model

and manage critical business

rules

Visibility, accountability and

Error free Business

Rules

Roles

UI

Workflow

& Task

Event

Data

Process Context

Create Claim



Rules

Roles

UI

Workflow

& Task

Event

Data

Process Context

Create Claim



Out

of

stock

Product

15 min

Reple-

nish-

ment

order

Out

of

stock

Product

15 min

Reple-

nish-

ment

order

Visible, Flexible and Informed Decisioning – With BRM

Flexible & agile business systems Precise & informed decision making

Faster turnaround times for change Improved visibility for the business

Reduced cost for change Positive improvement in quality


Case : Leading Truck Manufacturer

(Case Study from YASU)

Business Rules

■ Contracts Management – Liability Assessment

■ Claims Processing – Settlement Rules

■ Product Returns – Q Inspection Rules

■ Reports Generation

Major Process Challenges

■ Hard coded rules – Low Visibility

■ Loss of Domain & Application Knowledge

■ Slow Turnaround Times

Company

■ Fortune 500 company

■ Leading truck engine manufacturer

Challenges

■ Warranty Claims process took 1week to process a warranty.

■ Several parts were not even sent to suppliers due to complex warranty arrangements with suppliers

Benefits

■ Cost reduction of up to 1.87 million USD

■ Reduction in process time by 80%

■ Reduction in IT personnel costs

■ Reduction in inventory storage losses

■ Reduction in losses arising out of unrecovered claims

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Agenda

1. Introduction










Reusable Rules!

Divider headline


Building Blocks





Easy implementation of Complex Business

Rules

■ Rich rule formats

■ Classic if-then rules (inference rules/ production rules)

■ Decision tables – score cards and tabular rules

■ Rule flows – complex, modular rule execution sequences

■ Natural language-like rules representations

■ Support for multiple data models for rules implementations

■ Seamless navigation from process to rules through integrated process & rules modeling

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Rule Representation Formats

If – Then Rules

■ Simple English like statements joined with and/or

■ Priorities for specifying sequence of execution

■ Rule overrides to declare mutually exclusive rules

Decision Tables

■ Tabular representation of Rules

■ Easier to relate for Business Users with

Spreadsheet like structure

■ Integration with Microsoft Office Excel

■ Powerful features like returning multiple rows of

values, dynamic invocation of decision table etc


Rule Representation Formats

Flow Rules

■ Rules laid out in a flow like structure

■ Complex rules can be modeled using

■ Gateways to branch out into different paths

■ Rule scripts to hold a set of actions

■ If-then rules

■ Decision tables

■ Other flows and rule sets

■ Capability to iterate through flow elements until

some condition is satisfied

■ Easier to get an overview of the rule

implementation

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End-to-End Change Management

■ End-to-end development support

using the Eclipse based Rules

Composer

■ Web based collaborative business

user interface with role based access

to manage and deploy business

rules at runtime

■ Manage access permissions using

SAP NetWeaver Administrator

■ Version management

■ Business rules reports & rules

traceability


Rules Manager - A Preview

Rules Manager

■ A web based business user interface to help

business analyst manage, review and change

rules.

■ Provides Access Management and

Traceability

Role Based Activity

■ Role based access can be

specified to various BRM entities

for different users using the SAP

NetWeaver Administrator.

■ Permissions can vary from Edit to

Read.

■ Different access permissions can

be given to different entities of a

rules project.

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Rules Manager - Experience

Modifying Rules

■ Rules manager allows the

business user to create, edit and

manage If-Then Rules and

Decision Tables

■ Create different types of

actions

■ Set Static or Dynamic

Action values

■ Modify existing Conditions.



Viewing Version History

Rules manager shows

version history of rules

projects.

Business users can

also compare different

versions where they

can see modified,

added and

deleted If-Then rules

and decision tables.

Report Generation

Business users can

generate reports of

Rulesets, rules and

decision tables.

10



Check Consistency of Rules

Rules manager provides

consistency checker feature to

check syntactic properties of rules

and decision tables

It can be used to make checks like

rule consumption, overlapping

conditions and missing ranges in

decision tables

Show Usages

Rules manager allows

business users to find

usage of a decision table

or a definition. It is easier

to track the affect of

changes using this

feature.


Business Rules Refinement

Rules Refinement and Alignment

Business rules testing for Business Analysts

Business rules refinement and validation throughout rules lifecycle

Business rules refinement towards optimization

Simulate RulesAnalyze

RulesOptimize Rules

Application UI

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Tight integration with NetWeaver BPM

BRM

Rules accelerates BPM

Clear decoupling of process logic from

decision logic

Accelerated process efficiency with

automated decisioning

Reusable business rules services

Rules based correlations for real-time

business events

Rules in BPM – Some Use cases

Complex rule based decisions (Pricing,

Credit Decisions etc.)

Responsibility determination (Rule

based task assignment)

Recognition of business events

Routing rules (receiver determination)

Parameter thresholds & tolerance

(constraint rules)


Reusable Rules

Rules Modeling

Integrated Rules & Process ModelingIndependent Rules Modeling

Model in Rules Composer

Wider consumption across

applications

Model in Process Composer

For consumption by a business

process

Rules Consumption

Web Service

Web Service

Rules Connector

Web Service

EJB

http://www.sapdesignguild.org/editions/edition6/images/chrome-portal.jpg

http://www.atcommunications.co.uk/images/colour blackberry above.JPG

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Agenda

1. Introduction










Reusable Rules!

Divider headline


Building Blocks





SAP NetWeaver Business Rules Management -

Building Blocks

Key Features

Rules Modeling & Implementation

Business user-friendly rich rule formats

Support for multiple data models for rules implementation

Data model independent business vocabularies

Rules Composer

Rule Testing & Refinement

Validation of business rules

Testing & refinement of rules based on test results

Report generation for rule invocations

Rules Composer, Manager

Rule Execution

High performance rules engine

Stateless EJB Engine

Rete-based Inference & Sequential Engines

End-to-End Change Management

Web-based rules maintenance by business analysts

Rules versioning & repository services

Permissions, access control & governance

Rules Manager

Rules engine

Rules

composerProcess

Desk

Rules

management

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Various ways of modeling rules:

Model with rules composer and use as a

rules service

Model in the context of a business

process

And, many ways to integrate:

Rules services through an automated

activity

Use rules as mapping transforms

Use rules through EJB functions

Use rules from human-task user

interfaces

Use rules as gateway conditions

Process server

Process

composerProcess

Desk

Process

desk


Agenda

1. Introduction










Reusable Rules!

Divider headline


Building Blocks




14

DEMO


Business Rules in a Warranty Claim Process –

An Example

Rules to check that claim

request is valid and complete

Rules to analyze the nature of

the defect and the responsible

department/supplier

© SAP 2009 / SAP TechEd 09 / BPM101 Page 28

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Agenda

1. Introduction










Reusable Rules!

Divider headline


Building Blocks





Business Rules Management – Scope of 7.1.1

High performance Inference Rule Engine

Tightly integrated with BPM

Rules on XML Schemas and Java Objects

Support for simple If-Then Rules

Support for Decision Tables with powerful

features like dynamic invocation, other

conditions etc

Ability to create Definitions to hold intermediate

values

Assign Priorities and Preconditions to Rules

Rules to be consumed as a Stateless EJB or

Web service by other applications

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Business Rules Management – Overview of 7.2

Features

Support for designing complex rules using

Flow Rulesets

Integration of decision tables with Microsoft

Office Excel

Enumeration types to restrict input of few

parameters

Simple menu driven facility to generate a web

service for a Ruleset

Rule testing of rules written on XSDs

Web interface with access control mechanism

for Business Users to change and manage

Rules

Version management of Rules

HTML Reports of Rulesets

Rules engine

Rules

composerProcess

Desk

Rules

management


New features introduced in BRM 7.2

Effectivities - Date Effectivity can be used to specify the time

period during which a rule is effective, and can thereby be

executed.

Enumerations - Aliases can be restricted to take only a specific

set of values using Enumeration Types of the same data type

Common Definitions - Capability of creating definitions at

Project level that can be used in all the Rulesets of the project

Rule Overrides - A Rule Override helps resolve conflict

between two satisfied If-Then rules by suppressing execution

of lower priority rule

Rule Testing - Testing for Rules in Rules & process Composer

written on XML Schemas. No Java Code required for testing

rules on XML

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New features introduced in BRM 7.2

HTML Report Generation - Rules Composer will

provide a capability to generate a printable report for

Ruleset and Decision Tables.

Web Service Generation - Simple menu driven facility

in Rules Composer to provision a web service for a

Ruleset written on XML schema

Integration with Excel Documents - Rules Composer

will provide a capability to export a Decision Table to a

spreadsheet.

Check Consistency - Rules are checked for

consistency like overlapping conditions in rules,

missing ranges in decision table etc.

Compare with DTR rules and runtime rules - Rules

Composer will provide the capability to compare

different versions of Rulesets in the DTR in a text

format

Logging - Logging of Engine Execution Events with

Business Logging


Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

2009 2010

RELEASE PLAN

“Wave 3”

“Wave 2”

Business Reason

FOCUS AREAS BUSINESS VALUE

RAPID RULE

DEVELOPMENT

CONSUMABILITY

ENTERPRISE

READINESS

Future Direction

Business Rules Management

2009

“Wave 2”

PLANNED

“Wave 3”VISION

Rapid rule

development

Consumability of

Rules

Enterprise

readiness

DETAILS

Sequential and Flow rule

modeling options

Model complex rules using

drag and drop capability

Rule testing capability

Tighter integration with Business

Process Management

Rules available across application

stack from CE to ABAP business

applications

Integrated with SAP life cycle

management tools

Business user interface for rule

management at runtime

Enhanced and expressive rules

language

Improved rule testing and debugging

capabilities

Provide rule engine improvements

Provide localization for Rules

Historical invocation capability

Improved re-usability

Rich design time integration with

Galaxy

Provide lean consumption of Rules

Generic extension point of Rules for

other components

Analytics for what-if scenarios

Capabilities to model and

represent rule-based event

correlations

Integration with ESR

Rule based responses to

business events

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Further Information

Related Workshops/Lectures at SAP TechEd 2009

BPM261, Accelerating SAP NetWeaver BPM with BRM, Hands-on

CD106, BRFplus for ABAP: Empowering Business Users, Lecture

Related SAP Education and Certification Opportunities

http://www.sap.com/education/

SAP Public Web:

BRM in SAP Developer Network (SDN):

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/nw-rules-management

Business Process Expert (BPX) Community: www.bpx.sap.com

SAP BusinessObjects Community (BOC): www.boc.sap.com




http://www.sap.com/education/






http://www.bpx.sap.com/

http://www.boc.sap.com/

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