Interoperability and natural language processing for business rules engines

July 25, 2006
Peter Still | RuleBurst, London

Expert systems and the business rules approach have long been presented as a powerful approach to software development. However, the market potential of these technologies has not been realised. This presentation will suggest that further research is required to integrate rules better – both into IT architectures, and into users’ way of working. The paper will propose that business rules products have been developed in a way which is too proprietary. It will also suggest that there is an ironic problem with many business rules systems: that they promise architectural separation of business content in a system, but lack features to empower the information workers within organisations who understand business practices. The paper will propose that these problems can be addressed by maximising interoperability between rule software, initially through open XML schemas and later through rigorous standards. It will also consider natural language modelling and the use of modelling tools based on common desktop software to empower business users. It will discuss academic initiatives and a range of rules products, including RuleBurst’s natural language-based business rules suite, which has recently been integrated with Microsoft BizTalk Server (see attached PDFs), and which uses Microsoft Office Word, Visio and Excel to model rules for analysis and execution.

Speaker Details

Peter Still is a Partner Manager at RuleBurst corporation. RuleBurs provides software solutions for the administration of complex business rules and governance, risk and compliance management. RuleBurst’s core business is the provision of its core technologies, and related methodologies and services to capture, quality check, deploy and maintain complex rules and compliance frameworks used by any organisation.