OMG standards and related glossary entries

Proposed glossary entries Meta-model Production rule PRR SOA JSR 94 Business rules, SBVR and related entries Data Bases and related entries

Format Proposed definition Why this is relevant for this group and the RIF How this impacts the design of the RIF Pointers for more information

Meta-model A meta-model is the ontology for a model Relevance for this group and the RIF –Specific rules expressed in a rule language are instances –The rule language is the model –The meta-model is the ontology of the rule language E.g. a « rule » is made of an « antecedent », aka « condition », which is represented by a « boolean expression »; and a « consequent »… The semantics of the rule language belongs to the meta-model Impact on the RIF –Rule languages can be translated into each other if they share a meta-model Pointers for more information?

Production rule A production rule is a rule where the consequent is an action or a list of actions –An action is an assertion with side effects Production rules are widely used in commercial applications, esp. to automate business rules –There is a very large base of production rules deployed Figures? –Users demand a standard RIF and vendors are willing to implement it –There is a high potential for early deployment of the RIF (if it fits users and vendors requirements) Impact on the RIF –RIF must cover the specific features of production rules and the most widely deployed implementation technologies (pattern matching, RETE…) Pointers for more information?

PRR PRR is a meta-model for Production Rule Representation under specification at OMG –PRR Core and PRR OCLPRR Core Relevance for this group and the RIF –See Production RuleProduction Rule Impact on the RIF –PRR must be a meta-model for the relevant part of the RIF –The (phase 2 extension of) RIF must include a concrete syntax for the PRR meta-model (among other extensions) PRR white paper (to be published soon by Paul)

SOA SOA is an IT architectural style that supports service orientation –Service orientation is a way of composing an application as linked services –A service is a repeatable business task Relevance for this group and the RIF –Rules are a part of an SOA –Rules are a way to direct services –Rules are a way to implement a service Impact on the RIF –RIF must be able to include a reference to a service, esp. a Web service –RIF must support an XSD type system Pointers for more information?

JSR 94 JSR 94 specifies a lightweight Java API to enable stateful and stateless rule engine use; deploying rulesets from a variety of sources (including XML documents), undeploying rulesets Relevance for this group and the RIF –JSR94 assumes the existence of a standard rule language: RIF would be that language –JSR94 is part of the motivation for vendors to implement RIF Impact on the RIF –No apparent impact on the design of RIF JSR94 spec