Discussion A variety of vendors and consultants are promoting business rules as a promising new software development paradigm. Don't worry, business rules will not supplant objects, components, and event-driven programming. They're right about that much. In addition, rules processing is effective when the logic of an application is best described as a set of interacting rules that govern actions in response to known conditions. Rules processing is central to telecommunications problem management and real-time simulation systems, for example.
Workflow vendors use a form of business rules to govern task and information routing.
And rules are being used in logistics and supply chain management, as well. A new market for rules-based systems will be Internet applications. The business rules movement is trying to take rules processing to a new level of sophistication. Such high-level rules will, in fact, intensify automation of business operations, cutting costs and improving responsiveness. However, business rules proponents take this principle one step further.