Business Rules Execution via Managed Stored Procedures A Data-centric Approach Steve Cavanagh, Software Architect, Ramsey County Balaji Thiagarajan, Independent.

©2009 S. Cavanagh, B. Thiagarajan 1

Business Rules Execution via Managed Stored ProceduresA Data-centric Approach

Steve Cavanagh, Software Architect, Ramsey CountyBalaji Thiagarajan, Independent BizTalk Consultant

Twin Cities Connected Systems User Group

©2009 S. Cavanagh, B. Thiagarajan 2

AGENDA

Tonight’s presentation is intended to be conversational. Please ask questions.

Steve and Balaji

• Introduction

• Business Problem

• Solution Overview

• Mini Demo of System

• Code: Managed Stored Procedure & Rules Service

• Code: Rules

• Q & A

©2009 S. Cavanagh, B. Thiagarajan 3

Tonight’s food provided by

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Business ProblemCreate a new health care claiming system to replace a legacy system that is comprised of:

• A hodgepodge of technologies: VB6, Cobol, Access

• Business rules embedded in both stored procedures and VB6 code

• Difficult to troubleshoot

• Does not contain a good audit trail

• Valuable business information is not readily accessible

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GoalsCreate a health care claiming system that is:

• Accurate

• Auditable

• Flexible

• Maintainable

• Informative

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Claiming Solution

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Proof of Concept

An essential aspect to the project.

Steve Reed from Microsoft collaborated on design and provided technical assistance.

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AGENDA

• Introduction

• Business Problem

• Solution Overview

• Mini Demo of System

• Code: Managed Stored Procedure & Rules Service

• Code: Rules

• Q & A

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Managed Stored Procedure/Function

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Rules Engine Server

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Rules Engine Service

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Enable CLR

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Managed Function Installation

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Rules

• Overview• Static Support – Registry Key• Vocabulary Upgrader • Unit Testing - BizUnit

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Overview of Rules

• Set of simple rules using Xml facts and Database calls using static method helper components.

• The helper components do not implement IFactCreator.• Enterprise Library 3.1 was used for Logging, Error

Handling, Caching and DB Calls.

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Static Support - Registry Key

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Vocabulary Upgrader

• Problem: Upgrading to a new version of vocabulary will not automatically upgrade the vocabulary references in Rules.

• Result: Multiple versions of vocabulary references present in a single version of rule.

• Solution: Vocabulary Upgrader is now integrated with the Acumen Rule Manager previously available as a stand alone application.

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Unit Testing

• Used BizUnit framework to develop Test Scripts.• Used NUnit to run the tests.• BizUnit.BizTalkSteps.FactBasedRuleEngineStep – new on

latest BizUnit release, not much documentation.

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Q & A

• How has Ramsey County benefitted from this new system?– Found $100,000.00 in claims that were “missed” by

the old system.– Changes to rules are easier to implement and verify.

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Thank you for attending

Steve [email protected]

Balaji [email protected]