Overview

An updated version of this course is available. For more information, click Developing Rule Solutions in IBM Operational Decision Manager V8.9.2 (WB402G).

This course is also available as self-paced virtual (e-learning) course Developing Rule Solutions in IBM Operational Decision Manager V8.9 (ZB400G). This option does not require any travel.

This course introduces developers to IBM Operational Decision Manager V8.9. 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