Overview

An updated version of this course is available. For more information, click Developing Rule Solutions in IBM Operational Decision Manager V8.10 (WB404G).

This course is also available as self-paced virtual (e-learning) course Developing Rule Solutions in IBM Operational Decision Manager V8.9.2 (ZB402G). This option does not require any travel.

This course introduces developers to IBM Operational Decision Manager V8.9.2. It teaches you the concepts and skills that you need to design, develop, and integrate a business rule solution with Operational Decision Manager.

The course begins with an overview of Operational Decision Manager, which is composed of two main environments: Decision Server for technical users and Decision Center for business users. The course outlines the collaboration between development and business teams during project development.

Through instructor-led presentations and hands-on lab exercises, you learn about the core features of Decision Server, which is the primary working environment for developers. You design decision services and work with the object models that are required to author and execute rule artifacts. You gain experience with deployment and execution, and work extensively with Rule Execution Server. In addition, you become familiar with rule authoring so that you can support business users to set up and customize the rule authoring and validation environments. You also learn how to use Operational Decision Manager features to support decision governance.

The lab environment for this course uses Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard Edition.

Audience

This course is designed for application developers.

Prerequisites

• Experience with the Java programming language and object-oriented concepts
• Knowledge of Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE)
• Basic knowledge of Extensible Markup Language (XML)
• Basic knowledge of the REST API and RESTful architecture

Objective

• Describe the benefits of implementing a decision management solution with Operational Decision Manager
• Identify the key user roles that are involved in designing and developing a decision management solution, and the tasks that are associated with each role
• Describe the development process of building a business rule application and the collaboration between business and development teams
• Set up and customize the Business Object Model (BOM) and vocabulary for rule authoring
• Implement the Execution Object Model (XOM) that enables rule execution
• Orchestrate rule execution through ruleflows
• Author rule artifacts to implement business policies
• Debug business rule applications to ensure that the implemented business logic is error-free
• Set up and customize testing and simulation for business users
• Package and deploy decision services to test and production environments
• Integrate decision services for managed execution within an enterprise environment
• Monitor and audit execution of decision services
• Work with Operational Decision Manager features that support decision governance

Course Outline

• Course introduction
• Introducing IBM Operational Decision Manager
• Exercise: Operational Decision Manager in action
• Developing decision services
• Exercise: Setting up decision services
• Programming with business rules
• Developing object models
• Exercise: Working with the BOM
• Exercise: Refactoring
• Orchestrating ruleset execution
• Exercise: Working with ruleflows
• Authoring rules
• Exercise: Exploring action rules
• Exercise: Authoring action rules
• Exercise: Authoring decision tables
• Customizing rule vocabulary with categories and domains
• Exercise: Working with static domains
• Exercise: Working with dynamic domains
• Working with queries
• Exercise: Working with queries
• Debugging rules
• Exercise: Executing rules locally
• Exercise: Debugging a ruleset
• Enabling tests and simulations
• Exercise: Enabling rule validation
• Managing deployment
• Exercise: Managing deployment
• Exercise: Using Build Command to build RuleApps
• Executing rules with Rule Execution Server
• Exercise: Exploring the Rule Execution Server console
• Auditing and monitoring ruleset execution
• Exercise: Auditing ruleset execution through Decision Warehouse
• Working with the REST API
• Exercise: Executing rules as a hosted transparent decision service (HTDS)
• Introducing decision governance
• Course summary