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Business Rules Management Software (BRMS)

Webopedia Staff
Last Updated July 22, 2022 5:08 am

Business Rules Management Software (BRMS) is a software system used to develop, store, edit, and execute business rules, which is then automated across applications. Business rules are logical statements that define the behavior and operation of a business. BRMS is a low-code environment due to the rules being externalized and managed away from application code instead of embedding them as code within the applications. Because of the externalization, the business rules (also referred to as logic) can be used by multiple applications and changed separately from the governing applications.

What are Benefits of BRMS?

A BRMS system acts as a central storehouse for business rules. Organizations use this system to define and maintain the rules that guide workflow decisions in order to determine what actions can be taken. Changes to rules to take advantage of sudden or temporary market conditions can be done without waiting for the IT department to step in. Because the logic is outside the application code, a BRMS can boost business agility, productivity, and logic accuracy. Other benefits include:

  • Reliance on IT departments to manage changes in live systems is reduced.
  • Infinitely scalable no matter the complexity of the rules.
  • Decision logic is expressed with increased precision and control.
  • Identifies incomplete, conflicting, or circular rule logic.
  • Safeguards are provided to protect the integrity of decision logic.

What are popular BRMS vendors?

A BRMS vendor should include capabilities such as  developing business rules without writing code, validating business rules, customizable development environments for creating rules, and lifecycle and ownership management for business rules, among other things. Top BRMS vendors include:

  • Red Hat Decision Maker
  • Progress Corticon BRE
  • IBM Operational Decision Maker
  • InRule
  • PegaRULES