Business rules management systems make application maintenance faster and easier by giving programmers and business analysts a shared language for expressing business rules. So naturally, the importance of programmer views and user views in a BRMS cannot be underestimated. Programmers need tools that allow them to easily map the terms of the shared rule language to executable code, and business users need a nontechnical GUI editor to view the rules and make changes.
Between the two leading rules management systems for Java applications, Fair Isaac's Blaze Advisor has led in powerful tools for developers and users, while ILOG's JRules has offered better performance. Now, with the release of JRules 5.0, ILOG has closed the gap in ease of development. Based on my tests of the product so far, ILOG has also dramatically optimized JRules' run-time performance, producing benchmark test results that boggle the mind in some cases.
A key feature of JRules has been the Business Action Language that allows users to express rules in the "lingua franca" of their industry. Until now, it's been rather cumbersome. JRules 5.0 takes the concept of a custom rule language a significant step further, allowing users to literally define their own language including verbs, nouns, adjectives, and syntax. Not only that, but the rules are expressed in an XML format that is easily modifiable using almost any XML editor. From there it's an easy step to traditional ILOG Rule Language.
JRules 5.0 brings other stepwise improvements across the board. It even makes a good start at performance monitoring and optimization, thanks to new reporting capabilities that allow admins to track various performance parameters. I'll dive into these new features and disclose the results of my performance tests in an upcoming review.
ILOG JRules 5.0
ILOG
Cost: Starts at $72,000
Available: Now
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