BPMN 2.0 - Business Rule Task - Decision Table view

[PWarren]

For the BPMN 2.0 Business Rule Task, I'm hoping to see expanded Decision Table view structures and functionality in a future version of EA.

Also related to this, I'm hoping to eventually see the addition of the fairly new Decision Model and Notation DMN 1.1.

I'd rather have a Business Rule Task be able link to a Decision Model in DMN, then have the decision table link to one of the DMN elements. Support for FEEL and boxed expressions would also be very beneficial, if and when the DMN specification advances and clarifies those two items.

[Eve]

http://sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/13.0/model_domains/decision_models.html
is based on DMN.

You can add one of these to a BPMN Business Task, even draw it as specified in DMN. If you want to re-use it, specify one of these on a global task and then reference it from a call activity.

[PWarren]

Simon M,

Thanks, have already done that and the correct reference is BPMN Business Rule Task, not BPMN Business Task as you noted in your reply.

The issue is your current Decision Table & Editor functionality; very primitive. Table layout is limited. Interaction via the editor regarding rows and columns; primitive.

So as it is in 12.1 it does not even remotely support the full DMN 1.1 specification for decision tables.

[Eve]

Any specifics? As far as I remember you could model any decision table in the specification.

[PWarren]

@ Simon - "any decision table in the specification" is subjective. And I can tell tell you specifically, no you cannot currently model any of the decision tables in the spec. Simple, very very limited ones, yes. Decision tables; it is all about structure and choices of layout that make it powerful. That and being able to generate code for business rule engines. Please read Bruce Silver's latest book and/or website on the topic: http://methodandstyle.com/

Other tools are moving forward, at at least impulse power, while EA & Sparx isn't even in the game yet, or just barely. As it stands now, I'd either have to resort to Excel spreadsheets to get the decision table layouts I need for clients (I now have templates for these), then link those to my Business Rule Tasks, OR use another tool entirely. The later negates my using and renewing my Ultimate license annually.

[PeterHeintz]

As already stated somewhere in the form, I have several use cases for using the decision table feature, but for me it is useless just because of the “very primitive” implementation.

As I remember it is even not possible to rearrange things, apart of deleting and adding anew.

I cannot imagine who gets value from that feature with the current implementation.

[Eve]

Sure, the UI that allows defining the decision table has a fixed layout. But you can then choose to render the decision table in either way defined by the specification. The editor itself doesn't have basic behavior like re-ordering. I didn't know that previously. It's comments like that that I was hoping for when I was asking for specifics. If you look at what we have and identify a few improvements that would make you want to use it, they are much more likely to happen.

The decision tables are available to the code generation templates, which means they can be used for any language or platform. Although I don't think there are default templates for many.

[PWarren]

As already stated somewhere in the form, I have several use cases for using the decision table feature, but for me it is useless just because of the “very primitive” implementation.

As I remember it is even not possible to rearrange things, apart of deleting and adding anew.

I cannot imagine who gets value from that feature with the current implementation.

@ PeterHeintz - Thanks for helping drive my point by posting and chiming in! And yeah, as I've gone through BPMN 2.0 based process flows, I've had to do exactly that; delete and add new as part of rearranging the rules.

[PWarren]

Sure, the UI that allows defining the decision table has a fixed layout. But you can then choose to render the decision table in either way defined by the specification. The editor itself doesn't have basic behavior like re-ordering. I didn't know that previously. It's comments like that that I was hoping for when I was asking for specifics. If you look at what we have and identify a few improvements that would make you want to use it, they are much more likely to happen.

The decision tables are available to the code generation templates, which means they can be used for any language or platform. Although I don't think there are default templates for many.

Right, so you can have business rules as columns or rows; Table orientation, section 8.2.2 of the spec. That is at best a primitive and beginner's implementation of the DMN spec. regarding decision table structuring.

It needs to be far more flexible and Excel spreadsheet-like. Decision and rule authors need the ability to add an additional header cell and multiple sections for more than one set of Conditions (Inputs) and/or Conclusions (Outputs). This is something that has the potential to be a tool used by the less technical business folks, who in most or many cases intimately know the rules and decisions of a business.

Your developers can just look at the table examples in the spec., and read Bruce Silver's blog on the topic too. http://methodandstyle.com/blog/ Mr. Silver contributed quite a bit to the evolution of the spec from 1.0 to 1.1, while writing a book on the topic, "DMN Method & Style".