Tuesday | 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM

KEYNOTE

The Hitchhiker's Guide: From Rule Management to Business Governance

SPEAKER(s):

Ronald G. Ross Principal & Conference Co-Chair Business Rule Solutions, LLC

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: All

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: All

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

Ronald G. Ross continues his acclaimed Hitchhiker’s Series on Business Rules, a highlight of the Forum. In previous years, he introduced the BRG’s Business Rules Manifesto and talked about business semantics and applied point-of-knowledge architectures. This year he explores the impact of business rules for improved business governance. Key questions: Is is actionable? Is it retainable? Is it traceable? What you will learn:

• Retaining the corporate memory
• Reinventing knowledge-intensive business practices
• Business rules in internal and external value chains
• Business rule enterprise architecture
• Rule management in the “big picture”



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Ronald G. Ross is Co-Founder and Principal of Business Rule Solutions, LLC (*www.BRSolutions.com*). BRS provides workshops, consulting services, publications, and methodology supporting business analysis, business rules, business vocabulary, and rule management. His popular public seminars on business rules and business analysis, the first on business rules (starting in 1996) and the longest-running in the industry, are given through AttainingEdge (www.AttainingEdge.com).

At BRS, Mr. Ross co-develops *Proteus®*, its landmark business analysis and business rules methodology, which features numerous innovative techniques including the popular *RuleSpeak®* (available free through (www.BRCommunity.com)). These are the latest offerings in a 30-year career that has consistently featured creative, business-driven solutions

Mr. Ross also serves as Executive Editor of *www.BRCommunity.com* and its flagship on-line publication, *Business Rules Journal*. He is a regular columnist for the Journal’s Commentary section which also features John Zachman, Chris Date, Terry Halpin, and Roger Burlton. BRCommunity.com, hosted and sponsored by BRS, is a vertical community for professionals working with business rules and related areas. Mr. Ross was formerly Editor of the Data Base Newsletter from 1977 to 1998.

Mr. Ross is recognized internationally as the “father of business rules.” He has served as Co-Chair of the annual Business Rules Forum Conference since 1997. He was a charter member of the Business Rules Group (BRG) in the 1980s, and an editor of the two landmark BRG papers, “The Business Motivation Model: ‘Business Governance in a Volatile World’” (2000, revised 2005) and the Business Rules Manifesto (2003). He is also active in OMG standards development for business rules and business models, having core involvement in SBVR (_Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules_).

Mr. Ross is the author of eight professional books. His newest are: Business Rule Concepts (2005), a second edition of his popular, easy-to-read 1998 handbook, and Principles of the Business Rule Approach, Addison-Wesley (2003), featuring the business rationale and opportunity for business rules. An earlier work, The Business Rule Book (1994, 1997), was the seminal work in the field.

Mr. Ross received his M.S. in information science from Illinois Institute of Technology, and his B.A. from Rice University.

Tuesday | 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM | BRF1 Track

SESSION TITLE

A Quantum Leap in Business Rules at Freddie Mac

SPEAKER(s):

Kunkun Callaghan BPT Director Freddie Mac

Alan Trefler CEO, Chairman, Founder Pegasystems, Inc.

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: All

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: Novice, Familiar

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

Superior customer service in the call center is increasingly important. Leading companies like Freddie Mac are driving value through rules-driven process management. This session will provide an overview of the business challenges facing Freddie Mac, and an exploration of the decision to implement a rules-based BPM foundation to drive customer service. What you will learn:

• How Freddie Mac leverages rules and process to help make housing more accessible and affordable for millions of families across America
• Successes and challenges of the implementation process
• Future or similar opportunities BPM can bring to Freddie Mac and similar companies



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Kunkun Callaghan is a director of information systems and services and business technology services in the IT division of Freddie Mac. The government-sponsored, shareholder-owned enterprise purchases mortgages from lenders and packages them into securities that are sold to investors to support home ownership. Before Freddie Mac, Callaghan supported product development at First Virginia Bank (now part of BB&T Corp). In the late 1980s she was with a defense contractor, managing small teams that created software to help the military deploy personnel. Callaghan earned her BSIS at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and her MSIT at Johns Hopkins University.




Alan Trefler is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pegasystems, and also serves as Chairman of the Pegasystems Board of Directors. Trefler has consulted extensively in the use of advanced technologies, customer service processing, expert systems, and work automation. He has frequently presented to international audiences, and has written for major publications. Trefler has been profiled in such publications as The Boston Globe, Forbes and Inc. Magazine, and was granted a U.S. Patent in 1998 for Pegasystems’ distinctive Inherited Rule Base Architecture, which provides the framework for Pegasystems’ process automation management solutions.

Tuesday | 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM | BRF2 Track

SESSION TITLE

Rules Gathering: Changing the Process from an Art to a Practice of Science

SPEAKER(s):

Jack Holloway IT Project Director University of Phoenix

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: All

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: Novice, Familiar

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

One of the difficulties of creating business rules is the art of extracting relevant information from business users and the artful transformation of that information into concise, clear statements. Practice and errors slowly convert that art into a recognizable and repeatable science or practice. This includes reliable word selection, word arrangement, and communication tactics. This session will focus on these points to help the “rules analyst” more effectively. What you will learn:

• Extract and organize meaningful information from business users
• Distill business verbiage into clear and distinct rules
• Apply a consistent strategy of forming rules



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Jack Holloway has represented the business arm of University of Phoenix for over 17 years. In his newly created “Office of Process Design”, his team interviews all departments to assist in documenting and uncovering business rules, redesigning processes, and serving as a liaison between IT and the business. With his team, he’s documented, revised, or created the business rules and requirements needed to construct a new enterprise-wide system and to overhaul existing legacy systems used across the U.S. to support over 250,000 students.

Tuesday | 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM | BRF3 Track

SESSION TITLE

Business Rules are from Mars & Processes from Venus

SPEAKER(s):

Derek Miers CEO Enix Consulting

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: All

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: All

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

This session investigates the relationship between business rules and business processes, evaluating what is possible when the two approaches are effectively combined. What you will learn:

• The Power of Rules Enabled Processes
• Fundamentally Different Technological Approaches
• Comparison of Different Approaches Against Aims & Objectives
• Best Practices in development and implementation



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Derek Miers is a well-known independent industry analyst and technology strategist, publishing a great many white papers and product assessments. Over the years, he has carried out a wide range of consulting roles that have involved the provision of strategic consulting advice – from facilitating board level conversations around BPM initiatives, through establishing effective BPM Project and Expertise Centers, to helping clients develop new business models that leverage business process strategies. Clients have included many of the world’s largest and well-known financial services companies (banks, building societies and insurers), pharmaceutical companies, telecoms providers, commercial businesses, product vendors and governmental organizations.

Tuesday | 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM | BRF4 Track

SESSION TITLE

Was it all Hype, Part Deux?

SPEAKER(s):

Joe Garrity Architect / Project Manager The Hartford

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: All

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: Novice, Familiar

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

The Hartford, one of the largest investment and insurance companies in the United States, considered five years ago to take insurance guidelines hard-coded into legacy COBOL programs and externalize them to a rules engine. Since then, the company has implemented multiple projects. This presentation will discuss the lessons learned, whether the initial objectives were met and what the future holds at The Hartford. What you will learn:

• What did / didn’t work for the first rules-based application
• How to avoid some mistakes
• Proper expectations / objectives to establish
• Refining / re-factoring after your first rules implementation



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Joe Garrity is a seasoned information technology professional whose career has spanned many different technologies within the financial services software industry over the past 25 years. He has been involved with implementing rules engine applications for the past 15 years as both a developer, technical lead, rules architect and a project manager. The type of projects includes: 1) Mainframe Performance Analyzer; 2) Life Insurance Contract legal wording generator; 3) Medical Plan Benefits Configurator; 4) Point of sale Auto New Business Underwriting; 5) Auto / Homeowner New Business / Renewal Underwriting Service; 6) Personal Computer Configurator; 7) Life Insurance Medical Underwriting; 8) Benefits Eligibility

Tuesday | 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM | RTS1 Track

SESSION TITLE

Insurer HealthMarkets Enhances Risk Management, Training, and Outsourcing with Business Rules

SPEAKER(s):

Chris Robison Vice President, Technology HealthMarkets Agency Marketing Group

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: Business

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: Familiar

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

HealthMarkets, a $2.2 billion insurer in the self-employed and student markets, implemented a business rules application to improve risk management and increase field agents’ productivity. HealthMarkets selected Haley’s BRMS to power DigiQuote™, a proprietary tool used by agents to develop policy quotations in the field. What you will learn:

• How using a BRMS improves outsourced development, reduces risk, and decreases time-to-market
• How business rules automate decision support, improve field agent training
• Compliance benefits of business rules
• Advantages of natural language business rules
• Lessons learned in implementing a BRMS



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Chris Robison has over 12 years experience in IT consulting and software development. During his last 8 years, Mr. Robison has been focused on developing proprietary product configurators for companies in telecom, cable TV, online retail, and now health insurance. During Mr. Robison’s tenure at HealthMarkets, his technology group has revolutionized software development and support processes by championing the role of BRMS in the full SDLC.

Tuesday | 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM | RTS2 Track

SESSION TITLE

Developing Flexible Rules Based Appraisal & Commission Systems

SPEAKER(s):

Matt Lyon Business Development Manager Cornerstone Appraisal and Commission Systems

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: All

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: All

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

Cornerstone Appraisal Services specializes in high-value home appraisals and loss control for the insurance industry. Cornerstone’s rules-based appraisal and commission applications include several thousand business rules, with more being added daily. This practical session will explain how Cornerstone uses a BRE to build unique, dynamic appraisal forms, without the need for custom programming. We will discuss how rules have been used to implement commission and billing calculations, and explore how using a BRE lets our programmers work in parallel with business users who are authoring rules, thus reducing the amount of time it takes to complete a project. What you will learn:

• Implementing a workflow system for appraisers, featuring rules-based appraisal forms
• Using rules to build grammatically correct narratives for homes based on check boxes on an appraisal form
• Using rules to define calculations for commissions and billing
• Delivering a working application while rules are still being defined, allowing logic to evolve over time. Continuously enhancing and adding new rules to our production application, without going back to the programmers to do that



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Matt Lyon is Business Development Manager with Cornerstone Appraisal Services, which specializes in high-value home appraisals and insurance loss control. Matt has been using rules technology for three years and has several years of project experience. Some of the rules-based systems Matt has worked on include policy management systems for insurance carriers, a workflow management appraisals system and an automated underwriting system. Matt has implemented unique functionality using rules, including forms that generate grammatically correct narratives based on check boxes, and a self-correcting appraisal system. Matt earned his Economics degree at University of Utah and his MBA at DePaul University.

Tuesday | 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM | Chief Architect Track

SESSION TITLE

Business Process and Policy - Some Case Studies

SPEAKER(s):

Michael Parish Principal Technical Specialist CA

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: All

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: All

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

Running any business involves a complex interplay between the processes that cause things to happen and the policies that govern what will and what will not happen. The business rules approach separates Policy from Process and each part makes use of specialized engines – a Business Rules Engine for the Policy and a Workflow engine for the Process – this permits the business user to define and manage the Policy and the Process without needing to be a programmer. This session will illustrate this approach using a number of case studies and actual working demos. What you will learn:

• How to represent business logic using a rules engine
• How to represent business process using a workflow engine
• How to build a complete working system by combining both



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Michael Parish has worked in the computer industry since his university days where he studied artificial intelligence (back when 4K was considered large!), and has been involved with business rules for over 20 years. Initially at TRW developing rule-based systems using the Aion product, Parish subsequently (moving to the dark side) became a technical specialist working for the vendor Platinum Technology, which was later acquired by CA.

Tuesday | 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM | Chief Architect Track

SESSION TITLE

Key Requirements for Delivering Strategic Competitive Advantage

SPEAKER(s):

Val Huber Versata Fellow Versata

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: All

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: All

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

TBA




ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Mr Huber is one of the early pioneers of the Business Rule Approach. Val lead the development of Wang’s Pace, a rule-based system for developing OLTP applications for SQL data on mini-computers. At Versata, as the visionary founder, Val guided the development of a similar approach to the modern n-tier, web-based architectures, for which he holds several patents in the area of business rule automation. His special focus is on connecting with real-world problems, identifying patterns and devising automated solutions that decrease the time, cost and risk of systems delivery.

Tuesday | 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM | BRF2 Track

SESSION TITLE

Business Rules by the Business, For the Business

SPEAKER(s):

Mary Rowan Director Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota

Kelly Karlen Manager Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: All

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: Novice, Familiar

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

In 2001, BCBS of Minnesota implemented a rules engine which resulted in a claims automation increase of over 12%, with the business rules being managed 100% by the business. Since that first project, BCBSMN has pursued a business focused rules management strategy, including dedicated rules management team, formal rules methodologies, purchase of a business knowledge management repository, and implementation of governance/change management processes. This presentation will provide an overview of the initial claims automation project, and the subsequent work that BCBSMN has completed over the last 5 years, developing a rules discipline that is truly business motivated. What you will learn:

• Implementation of a mainframe based rules engine
• Supporting processes developed by the business, including a change management process, 100% business managed, that allows the business to respond to changes in a 2.5 week cycle, with full business testing, as opposed to a 6 week IT cycle
• Current business rules architecture being developed to support an enterprise wide business rules management discipline



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Mary Rowan has 22 years experience in the healthcare payer field leading customer service, claims payment, and enrolment teams to deliver customized service to commercial account business. Over the last 10 years she developed a centralized team of business analysts that supports business operations in process improvement activities, recognizing that business rule management is key in administering complex product and service rules. She is the business sponsor/owner for a major business rules implementation that automates claim adjudication rules, and currently she is accountable for developing the business infrastructure to support the ongoing management of benefit and enrolment business rules.




Kelly Karlen, manager of the Rules Management Team at BCBSMN, has been involved in leading rules related projects for the last 5 years. She was the business lead for a major business rules implementation that automated claim adjudication rules, developing the supporting processes and business development cycle that allowed the business to independently manage the related business rules and continuous production implementations. Currently she is working on expanding the practice of managing business rules to additional areas of the organization, including benefits and enrollment.

Tuesday | 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM | BRF3 Track

SESSION TITLE

Business Rules - Part of a Holistic Approach to Business Analysis

SPEAKER(s):

Art Moore President Clear Systems LLC

Steve Schofield Senior Business Architect Computer Sciences Corporation

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: All

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: Familiar

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

It’s one thing to talk about business rules in isolation. This session will describe the experience of defining and testing a complete business modeling approach in practice, incorporating business rules, in support of a large scale systems redesign. Using a real world, large-scale example of integrating business rule methods into the total system development process, the presenters will discuss the process as initially defined, what worked best in practice, as well as the benefits achieved. What you will learn:

• How a rules approach changes the surrounding system development process
• The affect on the process model
• Minimum business rule work products and rigor required for success
• Skills needed
• Traceability – what is enough, what is achievable



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Art Moore is a business and systems analyst with over 24 years experience in the field, from programming to practice management and strategic consulting. Over the past seven years, he has worked with a number of major government and commercial organizations to incorporate business rule enhancements to their systems development and management practices and to field business rule intensive, mission critical applications. In this capacity, he has worked directly and extensively with several of the business rule industry’s major thought leaders.




Steve Schofield is a Partner Consultant in the Technology Services Group of CSC Consulting and has over twenty years of experience designing and developing business solutions from a process centric perspective. As a Senior Business Architect, he also leads the Business Architecture Competency Community within CSC Consulting. His industry experience includes finance, insurance, aerospace, tax processing, and telecommunications.

Tuesday | 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM | BRF4 Track

SESSION TITLE

Promoting a Rule Organization for Re-Use - Our Solution and Lessons Learned

SPEAKER(s):

David Brown Specialist The Hartford

Kathleen Barrett Specialist The Hartford

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: Information Systems

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: All

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

Besides requiring the capability for business users to maintain rules, our customer wanted to manage the rules. Our customer had detailed requirements about rule categorization, organization and metadata. The business analysts needed ways to organize rules for reuse and the ability to deploy a group of rules as one unit. We met these requirements with a solution in Blaze and Oracle involving containers. David will explain how through this implementation, we were able to promote rule reuse and significantly reduce the number of rules to manage. This presentation will discuss our solution and our lessons learned.




ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

David Brown has 10 years of experience designing, developing and managing various IT projects utilizing many different technologies. The past 3 years of his career has been as a rules architect and developer for an application using Fair Isaac’s Blaze rules engine and Java. The current application implements underwriting rules for various lines of business within the personal lines insurance space. Additionally, David holds a graduate certificate in Project Management from George Washington University and a Six Sigma green belt.




Kathleen Barrett has over 20 years of experience in various disciplines and technologies, including Oracle, object-oriented development, rules technology, project management and technical leadership. For the past 5 years, she has functioned as senior developer on a business rules-based application, utilizing Fair Isaac’s Blaze rules engine and Java.

Tuesday | 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM | RTS1 Track

SESSION TITLE

Integration in an IBM Mainframe and WebSphere Environment

SPEAKER(s):

Paul Durfee Senior Application Developer Country Insurance & Financial Services

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: Information Systems

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: Novice, Familiar

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

This session will present a case study on implementing a rules engine (JRules) as a web service running on Windows servers and interacting with legacy CICS/COBOL programs running on IBM Mainframe. An overview of the previous architecture will be presented, along with the project goals, the new architecture, and the metrics involved. What you will learn:

• Challenges involved in this architecture
• Best practices for successful implementation
• Metrics/measurement of the successful implementation



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Paul Durfee, a Senior Application Developer for Country Insurance & Financial Services, has been developing business rules systems since 1993. He has experience with rule-based systems in the areas of P&C Insurance Eligibility, Claims Fraud Detection, Business Owners Policy Eligibility and welfare eligibility.

Tuesday | 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM | RTS2 Track

SESSION TITLE

Maximum Flexibility, High Performance: Developing an SOA Fund Accounting System with a Business Rules Approach

SPEAKER(s):

Nils Winkler Technical Architect SunGard

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: All

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: All

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

When reengineering their back office fund accounting system V3, SunGard faced the challenge of transferring the legacy system’s business logic to the new service-oriented architecture – with limited availability of technical resources and outdated documentation. The solution was “visual rules”, a business rule framework with a graphical modeling component, integrated debugger and automated regression testing facility, used by customers, business analysts and developers in a close collaboration. The result is a highly flexible application with faster time to market and high performance processing, a test driven development process and a service oriented architecture using the Spring Framework. What you will learn:

• Integration of “visual rules” business rule framework into the application and development process
• A live demo of the “visual rules” business rule environment as used in the V3 fund accounting application



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Nils Winkler works as a Technical Architect for SunGard in Frankfurt, Germany. He has more than ten years of experience in software development, with a strong focus on J2EE and distributed applications. Mr. Winkler has been working with business rules technology as a developer and architect in several large international banking and insurance industry projects during the last three years.

Tuesday | 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM | Chief Architect Track

SESSION TITLE

Integrating Large Enterprise Application Software Deployments with Business Rules

SPEAKER(s):

Peter Still Partner Manager RuleBurst

Michael Fairweather Principal Analyst RuleBurst

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: Business

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: All

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

Customers and analysts are demanding sophisticated extensions to traditional Enterprise Application Software. Clients need to customize Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management and other enterprise applications very rapidly – and maintain the customizations over time. Enterprise Application frameworks need to supplement existing database and workflow capabilities with powerful decision-making. What you will learn:

• How to add very powerful rule-based capabilities to Enterprise Application Software packages
• Approaches to integration for different scenarios, e.g. interactive CRM systems and back office processing
• How the overall solution can affect rule capture and modeling requirements



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Peter Still has worked since 1999 in a range of roles in the business rules industry, from rule analysis and system design to product positioning, analyst relations and business development. He has several years’ experience implementing business rules-based systems in Australia, has worked in the business rules area in the United States for almost two years, and is currently based in the United Kingdom. Peter is a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at King’s College, University of London. He has also taught at the Australian National University. Peter is also a qualified lawyer, admitted to practice as a Legal Practitioner of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory.




Michael Fairweather has worked in the business rules industry in the United Kingdom in the roles of rule analyst, business analyst and software developer. He is currently based in the United States, where he has taken a business development role. Michael is a qualified lawyer, admitted to practice as a Legal Practitioner of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and he worked in the legal profession in Australia and the United Kingdom before becoming involved in business rules. He recently took the lead role in the development of two rulebases for the Britsh tax office in the legal domain.

Tuesday | 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM | BRF1 Track

SESSION TITLE

Simplifying Business Rules Harvesting Using Six Sigma Methodology

SPEAKER(s):

Paul Ulshafer Project Manager General Electric

Rolando Hernandez CEO and Chief Rules Architect BizRules

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: Business

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: Novice, Familiar

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

Learn from GE’s real-world implementations and experiences. This session will discuss the hurdles involved with getting started with the rules harvesting process and will cover the tools used to document rules, provide status, and create comprehensive metrics. What you will learn:

• Tips on how to get started
• Suggested tools that are easy to use
• Reduce status and metric creation time
• Harvesting during \“crunch time\”
• Six Sigma Methodology



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Paul Ulshafer is a certified GE Six Sigma Black Belt and is currently the Business Rules Project Manager on a GE Energy Contractual Modeling System. Paul has been with GE for six years and was asked to take on this role in January of 2005 due to the business and system knowledge that he has obtained during his GE tenure. He managed the selection of a Business Rules Engine and supplier and has managed the harvesting of knowledge and rules from various subject matter experts involved with this program. Paul recently received an Executive MBA from the University of Georgia.




Rolando Hernandez is CEO and Chief Rules Architect of BIZRULES. A thought leader in business rules management and knowledge management, Rolando founded BIZRULES in 1995 to help Global 2000 companies manage business rules and enterprise knowledge. He helped create Mobil Oil’s Global Knowledge Management Strategy and Global Expert System Strategy, and he also helped write the business rules for the Government of Canada’s Social Security Modernization Project. Recently, Rolando was IBM’s Business Rules SME on the IRS PRIME CADE Business Systems Modernization Project. Currently, Rolando is assisting a Fortune 10 firm to document and automate their rules for Global Statutory Compliance (including Sarbanes-Oxley) using business rules/business process technology.

Tuesday | 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM | BRF2 Track

SESSION TITLE

The Life of a Business Rule

SPEAKER(s):

Kristen Seer Senior Consultant Business Rule Solutions, LLC

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: Business

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: Novice, Familiar

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

For those new to the business rules approach, it is sometimes unclear what business rules really look like and how they evolve as they move from concept to implementation. Using real life examples, this presentation will follow a set of rules from drafting the rules through to implementation and beyond. This presentation covers what happens at each stage, and includes handling changes to the rules and “retiring” them. What you will learn:

• What do the rules look like?
• What do you need to know about the rules?
• How you know the rules are correct?
• How do the rules fit with other rules?



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Kristen Seer is a Senior Consultant with Business Rule Solutions, LLC. She has worked as a business analyst with numerous companies in industries such as telecommunications, insurance, defense, auto parts, finance, hi-tech, energy and workers’ compensation. Her work focuses on helping clients introduce the Business Rules Approach in rule-intensive projects, including facilitating sessions to capture business rules. She also conducts training in the Proteus® Business Rules Methodology. Her twenty plus year career has encompassed roles as business analyst, rule analyst, data analyst, project manager, facilitator and mentor.

Tuesday | 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM | BRF3 Track

SESSION TITLE

How To Choose A Business Rules Management System

SPEAKER(s):

Marty Saulenas Principal Rules Maven Boca Consulting

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: Information Systems

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: Novice

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

This session offers practical guidance on choosing a Business Rules Management System (BRMS) that is the best fit for your organization?s requirements. A business rule engine (BRE) is the core component of a BRMS, but there are a number of other important components as well. The session surveys key components and features of BRMS?s, explains the strengths and weaknesses of different types of rule engines, and provides practical advice on how to select a BRMS and how to make the best use of the technology once you have chosen a product. What you will learn:

• Determine if you really need a BRMS
• Select the BRMS that matches your needs
• Make the best use of a BRMS in developing your application



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Marty Saulenas has been intimately involved in the business rules game for three decades. As director of product management at Wang Laboratories in the 1980s, he was part of a small team that developed and marketed PACE, an early and successful rules-based development system. In the ?90s, as director of product management at Versata, he oversaw the development of a trigger-based (?data change?) rule engine built on a J2EE-compliant architecture. Since 2000, he has consulted widely on business process automation (BPM) and rule automation projects, with a focus on rules technology evaluations, and has gained experience with most of the popular rule engines on the market today.

Tuesday | 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM | BRF4 Track

SESSION TITLE

Write Rules in English and Formally Capture their Meaning Using SBVR

SPEAKER(s):

Don Baisley Consulting Engineer Unisys

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: All

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: All

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

Start with a good methodology — the Business Rules Approach — so that the rules are clear and precise. Then leverage the new SBVR ecosystem of tools to turn English statements into formal structures of meaning. These structures are interchangeable for use in vocabulary development, rule capture, rule mining, requirements management, rule analysis, rule review, generation of software or other IT artifacts such as production rules for rule engines, software customization and tracing of dependencies from business goals through business rules and on to IT models and deployments. Formally capture the meaning of your rules. What you will learn:

• How SBVR formalizes the meaning of real business rules
• How formal semantics are shared between tools



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Don Baisley is lead architect at Unisys for Rules Modeler, a toolset supporting the Business Rules Approach. Mr. Baisley is a co-author of OMG’s Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) specification.

Tuesday | 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM | RTS1 Track

SESSION TITLE

Use of BRE to Migrate a Key System from Legacy to SOA

SPEAKER(s):

Bill Dow Information Officer AIG Agency Auto

Hemant Joshi Principal Consultant Satyam Computer Services

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: All

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: Familiar, Expert

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

A leading P&C Insurance company was grappling to cope with its aggressive growth and expansion objectives. Relying in the past upon legacy systems, the company decided to transform its key legacy sales and service technology using a business Rule Engine based solution leveraging SOA principles. This introduced a dramatic change to the company’s IT landscape both from a process perspective and a technological perspective. The resulting system allowed for improved speed to market as well as substantial improvements in operational efficiency. Attendees will learn how BRE can be used to transform a legacy heavy environment into a flexible SOA based one. What you will learn:

• How one company faced the challenge of introducing BRE to its environment and built upon that technology to experience improved efficiency, streamlined development and better architectural principles
• How to deal with some of the inherent challenges associated with building a web based system based on BRE



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Bill is an Information Officer for AIG Agency Auto, one of the US’s leading independent agency companies. Coming from a Document Management/Workflow background and moving into a management capacity at a large insurance company, Bill has an interesting perspective on how rules engines can be used to streamline many of the technologies used in the insurance industry. Bill has experience working with business rules technologies in both the USA as well as Europe and will provide an interesting perspective on working with BRE in a dynamic corporate environment.




Hemant has more than 12 years of cross industry experience. In his current role as Leader of BRE practice in Satyam Computer Services, a leading IT services company, he helps global organizations derive significant ROI through convergence of Business Rules Processes and Content. Over the past 4 years, Hemant has played delivery manager and solution leader roles for executing Business Rules based solutions at large insurance, healthcare, banking and manufacturing customers in the US, Europe and APAC. Hemant has spoken at various forums and with leading analysts on topics such as Rules based BMP, Rules in SOA architecture, Rules Harvesting methodologies, etc.

Tuesday | 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM | RTS2 Track

SESSION TITLE

The Impact of Business Rules on IT Organizations

SPEAKER(s):

Roland Berg Technical Consultant Diligent Consulting, Inc.

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: Information Systems

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: Novice, Familiar

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

This session offers a look at BR from a technical/systems perspective. The focus of this presentation will be on how a BR approach impacts the IT organization. It will explore the changes required to the technical culture/skills/thinking of the organization that wants to implement BR, including what has to change and how that affects both short and long-term success including real examples of what can go right and wrong over the life of a BR based system. What you will learn:

• What it means to go BR
• Key Concepts
• System, Process and Organizational Impacts
• Success Factors, avoiding failure and making it work!



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Roland Berg is a technical consultant with Diligent Consulting, Inc. and is based in San Antonio, Texas. With over 26 years of IT industry experience as a developer, designer, project manager, architect and consultant in various public and private sector domains, Roland has successfully architected and built rule driven systems and has reviewed several industry leading tools. He has been a regular presenter on topics including methodology, enterprise, data and software architecture and business rule driven systems at the Business Rules Forum, Data Management Association International Conference, Oracle Development Tools Users Group and the International Oracle Users Group.

Tuesday | 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM | Chief Architect Track

SESSION TITLE

The Decision Service Architecture: Optimizing Rule Deployment in a SOA

SPEAKER(s):

Pedram Abrari Chief Technology Officer Corticon Technologies

MAIN FOCUS OF PRESENTATION: All

FAMILIARITY WITH SUBJECT: All

ABOUT THIS SESSION:

Rules are a perfect fit for Service Oriented Architectures, and when deployed correctly can contribute to a finely tuned decisioning infrastructure. A decision is rarely comprised of a single rule, but rather the sophisticated interactions of a number of rules. A set of rules is a logical unit that can be deployed as a Web Service called a Decision Service. Discrete Decision Services can be efficiently integrated into and consumed across many business applications and processes in a platform and language neutral fashion. This session will explore the concept of Decision Service Architectures and how it can help ensure logical integrity, reduced complexity and seamless integration of rules within enterprise systems. What you will learn:

• The perfect marriage between SOA and rules: Decision Services
• The Benefits of Decision Services
• The need for Semantic Service Contracts
• Decision Services and the Semantic Web



ABOUT THE SPEAKER(s):

Pedram Abrari is considered by many as one of the brightest innovators and thought leaders in the Business Rules domain, and was a collaborator with Ronald G. Ross on his publication, Principles of Business Rule Approach. Abrari has nearly 15 years of experience in enterprise software, including 8 years as a technical lead and architect. Prior to joining Corticon, Abrari was an independent consultant at Western Asset, where he performed the first successful enterprise integration of a Java application server (Weblogic) with a rule engine (Blaze Advisor).
Prior to that he founded and built the engineering team at PeopleMover Software, a startup in Los Angeles, acquired by Opus360 (NASDAQ: OPUS). Abrari began his career in software development at Rockwell International and Rocketdyne, and also worked as a consultant at Kaiser Permanente. Abrari has a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of California at Los Angles (UCLA) and the University of Southern California (USC), respectively. He has also taught a course in Relational Database Systems at California State University Northridge (CSUN).