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Some best practices when designing decisions are given below. It is not to be used as "the one and only way" but should be treated as a possible means to create understandable decisions.

1Main

Ask yourself the question what the main decision is. If you think of more than one answer, split these decisions if possible.
For instance, if you main decision is "the amount and duration of a child care benefit" or "the fee for a small building permit" you are are actually modeling two decisions. Design them separately and reuse attributes that accommodate both decisions.

2TypeNote that a decision is not bound to be a Boolean. In general, there are three types of decisions:
  • Boolean decision (you are eligible for benefit X),
  • Classification (you will receive category 'medium' for benefit X) or
  • Calculation result (you will receive € 100,- per year for benefit X).
3Sub
decisions
For each identified decision, determine if the decision is preferably built up out of meaningful sub decisions. These sub decisions could be reusable decisions - in fact reusable decisions will most likely be sub decisions - but not every sub decision has to be a reusable decision.
Think of a complex calculation where intermediate results are never reused but are created nevertheless, for the sake of understandability.
4CircularityAvoid circularity. When decision A depends on the outcome of decision B and decision B needs the result of decision A as input, you're in trouble! When designing decisions top-down circular references can easily be avoided.5 ...

Prime examples

In this paragraph prime examples of Blueriq's logic contructions are given.
Of course it is subject to discussion whether one logic construction or another is used best, but that will be discussed in chapter 4. Design considerations.

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