Oracle SOA Suite 11g Handbook

Chapter 8Rules Rule—on Decision Services

SOA composite applications contain various forms of logic. These have some overlap, but they also have their own specific actors, implementation technologies, and maintenance cycles. There is, of course, implementation logic written by programmers in programming languages such as BPEL, XPath and XSLT, Java, and even PL/SQL. There is also process logic, designed perhaps using the Business Process Analysis Suite, modeled in BPMN or BPEL by business analysts.

Another type of logic is business logic—describing and implementing derivations, validations, calculations, and other business rules. Frequently this last type of logic is described by the analysts—in free format text—and then implemented by developers ...