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Background documentationModeling Rules with Rules Composer Locate this document in the navigation structure

 

SAP NetWeaver enables organizations to manage business rules for decision automation. Business users participate in and control rule definition and change, while business process experts model, validate, deploy, update, and archive business rules through their lifecycle. As such, IT organizations can work with business users to manage business rules that drive process flow and execution.

Business rules describe the operation, definition, and constraints that apply to an organization in achieving its goals.

Example Example

  • Consider a business rule, BR1. CONDUCT that determines the behavior of an employee

    The business rule, BR1 CONDUCT business rule grades the employees as GOOD, MODERATE, and BAD

  • Consider a business rule, BR2. ANNUAL INCOME that determines the employee eligibility for a loan

    The business rule, BR2. ANNUAL INCOME determines if the employee is eligible to apply for a loan or not depending on his annual income

End of the example.

SAP NetWeaver Business Rules Management (SAP NetWeaver BRM) helps you model critical business rules and automate rule-based decisions in composite business processes and composite applications.

The rules composer is the design time of BRM where you can create rules. For more information about creating rules with the rules composer, see Getting Started and Tasks.

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text.

Rules Composer is integrated into SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio as a separate perspective and provides rich and user-friendly formats of rules representation enabling users to model complex business rules. It contains extensive business rules modeling capabilities for business analyst and rules implementation functionality for business rules developers.

Rules can be created in two ways:

  • Rules composer as a separate perspective in SAP NetWeaver CE allows you to model rules. These rules can be used in any other business application or a business process.

  • Process composer as a perspective allows you to model rules in a business process context.

Note Note

When to use the rules composer for rules modeling

Using rules in rules composer helps you in -

  • Componentisation of application :

    • Separation of business rules defined, from the application code

    • Separation of business rules defined, from a complex business process workflow

  • Reduces the complexity in maintaining the constraints which affect the business process

When to use the process composer for rules modeling

  • Using rules in process composer will help you in centralizing the whole process, as the business process and the constraints affecting the process are available in the same development component

End of the note.

For more information about the SAP's BRM notation see Concepts

The Rule Engine represents the runtime for rules execution. It is a system that helps you manage business rules more effectively. It provides a means to classify and manage rules in a centralized location instead of being hard coded throughout an application.

For more information about the rules engine see Executing Rules

Rules Manager is a rule-centric application, based on SAP's Web Dynpro technology that provides a rule management environment. It allows business managers, administrators, functional users to modify business rules and effect changes in real time. Using the rules manager, you can add, edit or delete any of the rule artifacts such as rulesets, rules and decision tables without stopping the rule engine. The changes made to the rule artifacts take place instantaneously on the rule engine.

More information: Working with the Rules Manager