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About business rules

A Rules Engine is a software package available from ILOG that can be used to separate the business rules from the process, making it easier for a business analyst to adjust a complex process by modifying the rules, rather than modifying a workflow definition. To implement rules functionality in a workflow, the workflow author and the business analyst work together to determine how rules will be used in the workflow—what decisions will be controlled by rules, what workflow data will be required, appropriate names for the rule sets, and the steps in a workflow where the rules will execute.

The rules engine can control the following types of operations in a workflow:

  • Assign data to a field in the work item
  • Send a work item to a map (similar to a call instruction)
  • Send a work item to a custom exception map
  • Skip a step
  • Repeat a step

See Using Rules Engine for information about configuring and administering rules functionality. See Advanced workflow properties in the Help for Process Designer for instructions for defining rules in a workflow definition.