Decision management is the management on how decisions are made and where these decisions are used within an organization. An organization can differentiate by making different decisions as their competitors.

Decision Model and Notation (DMN)

Decision model and Notation (DMN) is a model used to describe how decisions are made within an organization. The model is adopted by the Object Management Group as one of their standards.

The model consist of two levels, the decision requirements level and the decision logic level. The decision requirements level is a high level structure of decisions, sub-decisions and inputs. The requirements level also has references to logic elements and knowledge sources. The decision logic level describes how different inputs will lead to a single answer for a question. When examining a Blueriq logic model, you can see it also contains the same parts.

Decision requirements level

A decision requirements graph is used to create a graphical high level model on how a decision is made. An example is shown below.

DRG for the calculation of the riskscore for an insurance claim

The model should be read as: The decision riskscore is calculated:

according to the logic in the RiskScoreCalculation
and the results from RiskScore Bonus and RiskScore Penalties as input
using inputdata from the CustomerDossier to calculate the RiskScore Bonus
In the source ClaimPolicy the policy to calculate the riskscore is described.

The model consist of four different type of shapes and the connections between them. These different shapes are:

Decision logic level

The decision logic level contains logic elements, like decision tables and expressions. These logic elements make it possible to infer a result for a decision. These logic elements are connected to the requirements level using the business knowledge model. The official description of DMN contains a specification of their view on decision tables and an expression language.

The DMN specification allows implementations to use other types of logic elements than the ones proposed in the specification. Since Blueriq already has its own models to create logic, we will be using these for our models. For that reason the logic elements described in the specification will not be described further in this document.

Further information can be found in the specifications here: Beta specification DMN.pdf

Decision Management in Blueriq

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The Decision Model (TDM)