Since my last post on the current state of the DMN tools market, I've learned a bit more from a few vendors... Sapiens Decision The Decision Model, on which the Sapiens offering is based, can be viewed as a progenitor of DMN, but I was unaware of Sapiens' intent to support the DMN standard in their offerings. That is significant. Where most DMN tools start with barebones decision modeling, Sapiens …
It's still early days for DMN, but a number of tools are available or have been publicly demonstrated. Here is my impression of where we are at the moment. DecisionsFirst Modeler James Taylor's free DecisionsFirst Modeler was one of the first DMN tools available. It allows a business user to draw DRDs and enter a wealth of business context behind each decision node. Instead of providing a DMN …
In my BPMN classes I start by highlighting the ways in which it is different from traditional swimlane flowcharts. While the outward similarities ease business user adoption by presenting a familiar appearance, the reasons why BPMN has succeeded as a standard actually stem from all the ways in which it is different from (i.e., better than) flowcharting. And so it is with the Decision Model and …
In his comment on a recent post, Nick Broom questions my embrace of FEEL, in particular my claim that it is reasonably business-friendly. He worries that in fact that FEEL will prove a barrier to DMN adoption, especially since decision management tools are being sold on the premise that "anyone can do it." A lot to unpack there, but let me try. First, almost no one has any idea of what FEEL is. …
In my DMN 1.2 Wishlist post, one of the key items is the ability to represent a single decision node having complex decision logic with a "sub-DRD" equivalent to the boxed context representation allowed under DMN 1.1. In his comment, James Taylor sighs loudly and adds that if I understood the spec better I would realize that what I want can be done already in DMN 1.1. I don't see that, but a …
The DMN 1.2 Revision Task Force starts up this week. I have a number of related items in my wish list. Before submitting them to the RTF, I'll use these posts to generate some discussion. My top ones are these: Hierarchical DRD Like a subprocess in BPMN, I'd like a decision node in DRD to be expandable to another DRD, so that a single decision model representing a complex end-to-end business …
In my book DMN Method and Style I find some fault with both The Decision Model (TDM) and the Lending example in the DMN 1.1 spec for delegating definition of a multi-step business decision to a BPMN process model instead of to where it rightfully belongs, a DMN decision model. To me, determining something like Is the loan approved or declined? is a single business decision, whether implemented as …
DMN, which stands for Decision Model and Notation, is a relatively new standard managed by OMG, the organization behind BPMN. It is trying to do for Business Decision Management what BPMN did for Business Process Management a decade ago: empower the business to take charge of the logic that drives its operations, through a vendor-independent diagramming language. To be effective, that language …