How to Build a Business Rules Engine

these problems is for the rule types to be as close to declaring the rule as possible

rather than entering the mechanics of how it works. This means that the rule type

has to be as close to the business as is feasible.

Another advantage of highly specific rules types is that it is possible to reuse the

metadata of the rules. For instance, if there is a requirement to list all the participa-

tion percentages used in the application, then having specific rule types makes

meeting this requirement much easier. If general expressions are used, it is much more

difficult to do something like produce a list of participation percentages. In fact, the

only recourse may be to undertake reverse engineering. The capacity to utilize meta-

data specific to rule types ...