Jan Purchase of LuxMagi and I are working away on our new book, Available now! Real-World Decision Modeling with DMN and I wanted to take a moment to talk about why Jan and I are the right people to be writing this. Our aim is to provide a comprehensive book that explains decision modeling as well as the DMN standard and that gives practical advice based on real projects.
Regular readers of the blog will have a perspective on me and why I am in a position to write such a book but for those without the history, here are some highlights:
- I have been working in Decision Management since we first started using the phrase back in 2002 – there is at least one witness that claims I came up the phrase – and have really done nothing else since then. Throughout this period one of the key challenges has been how best to structure, manage and document a decision so it can be effectively managed. We tried rule-centric approaches, process-centric approaches and document-centric approaches but until we started using decision modeling none of them we really satisfactory. This context makes me really value decision modeling and gives me a wide range of counter-examples!
- As I got interested in decision modeling, I wrote a chapter for Larry and Barb’s book on their decision modeling approach, wrote the foreword to Alan Fish’s book on decision modeling and included the basic outline of what would become the DMN standard in my book Decision Management Systems.
- Decision Management Solutions was one of the original submitters when the OMG requested proposals for a decision modeling standard and I have been an active participant in every step of the DMN process, both the original and subsequent revisions.
- Our work with clients has involved building decision models for rules projects and for predictive analytics projects as well as for manual decision-making and dashboard efforts. We have built models in financial services, insurance, healthcare, telco, manufacturing and travel. We have also taught hundreds of people across dozens of companies how to do decision modeling.
- My personal work with decision management technology vendors has exposed me to their clients too, providing a huge pool of experiences with decisioning technology on which to draw.
- Plus I have written and co-written several books, including most recently working with Tom Debevoise to write the first book to introduce DMN – The MicroGuide to Process and Decision Modeling in BPMN/DMN
So why Jan? Jan too has a depth of experience that makes him a great choice for this book:
- Jan has spent the last 13 years working with business rules and business rules technology. While structuring and managing business rules is not the only use case for decision modeling, it is a very powerful one and the one that is the primary focus of this book. Jan’s long time focus on business rules gives him a huge array of examples and experiences on which to draw.
- Part of this experience is with lots of different Business Rules Management Systems. Like me, Jan has seen the industry evolve and used multiple products giving him a breadth of perspective when it comes to how business rules can be presented to business owners, how SMEs can be engaged in managing business rules and much more.
- Jan’s experience is intensely practical, working to develop the business rules directly as well as mentoring others who are developing business rules, providing training in decision modeling and business rules best practices and acting as a reviewer and advisor.
- Jan has spent 19 years working in finance and has worked with 8 of the top 15 investment banks, for instance. He has worked on everything from liquidity to compliance, accounting to loans and asset classification – he has tremendous experience in one of the most complex, heavily regulated industries out there. Decision modeling has a critical role to play in a modern regulatory architecture so this experience is invaluable.
- Before working with DMN on projects Jan worked with The Decision Model extensively giving him a perspective on decision modeling influenced by the two major approaches out there.
Between the two of us we have a depth of experience we believe can make Real-world Decision Modeling with DMN not just a book about the notation and how to use it but a genuine best practices guide to decision modeling.
Available now! Real-World Decision Modeling with DMN
