Decision Model and Notation
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Decision Model and Notation
Decision Model and Notation (DMN).[1] is a standard published by the Object Management Group on 2014-01-16. Using this standard will ensure that decision models are interchangeable across organizations.
The DMN standard provides the industry with a modeling notation for decision management and business rules. The language is built to be readable by all its users in the business (as declared in chapter 1):
- the business people who manage and monitor the decisions,
- the business analysts or functional analysts who document the initial decision requirements and specify the detailed decision models and decision logic,
- the technical developers responsible for the automation of processes which use the decisions.
The DMN standard is complementary to the BPMN standard. The BPMN defines a special kind of activity, the Business Rule Task, which "provides a mechanism for the process to provide input to a business rule engine and to get the output of calculations that the business rule engine might provide"[2]. Together, BPMN and DMN may be used to more efficiently build process models[3].
Benefits of using DMN
Using the DMN standard is conceived as improving business process management, since
- other popular requirement management techniques such as BPMN [4] and UML do not handle decision making
- growth of projects using business rule management systems, which allow faster changes [5]
- it facilitates better communications between business, IT and analytic roles in a company
Tools
The DMN standard is fairly young, but there are already several tools supporting the DMN notation.
- Decision First Modeler by Decision Management Solutions
- OpenRules
- SMARTS Pencil by Sparkling Logic
More and more companies start to support DMN in their tools, e.g. Signavio, FlexRule and IBM.
References
- ^ Decision Model and Notation (DMN), current version
- ^ BPMN standard, current version
- ^ The MicroGuide to Process and Decision Modeling in BPMN/DMN: Building More Effective Processes by Integrating Process Modeling with Decision Modeling by Tom Debevoise, James Taylor, et al. [1]
- ^ BPMN standard, BPMN and DMN - Simplify BPM with Decision Management
- ^ Discovering the Decisions within Your Business Processes using IBM Blueworks Live, [https://books.google.be/books?id=OhzCAgAAQBAJ Publisher IBM Redbooks, 2014 ISBN 0738453579, 9780738453576]