In this post, we’ll explore the importance of the repository in decision management. This is a continuation of our series on what’s new in SMARTS™ Washington.
What is a Repository?
Generally speaking, a repository is a storage space. Repositories can store physical objects such as gold, non-physical objects such as secrets, and digital objects such as data files. Today, repositories usually refer to storage of digital objects. In decision management, having repositories was a major breakthrough. The earliest business rules engines focused on execution and lacked a repository. Business rules management systems (BRMS), the predecessor to decision management systems or platforms, changed that. Through a rule repository, development, testing, and production can be performed on the same system. The rule repository stores business rules and other decision assets. With storage comes many benefits, including:
- Lifecycle Management: Since the rule repository provides a backup of your decision logic, you can manage the logic independently from the systems that use it.
- Versioning/Audit Trail: Related to lifecycle management, you can keep track of changes (who, what, when, where). This is handy for both QA and compliance. In addition, users can easily revert back to a previous version if the new changes are invalid.
- Security/Access Control: You can control who has access to which assets and whether or not they have editing rights.
- Collaboration/Reuse: Multiple users can collaborate on developing the decision logic. Once finalized, the logic can be used by multiple applications.
Repository Time Travel
Through a repository, SMARTS™ decision management platform provides these benefits and additional capabilities to make management of decision logic easier. For example users can accomplish the following:
- Search and filter data and decision logic based on content (and not just file names)
- Export search results
- Find and replace elements in a project asset
In addition, now users can go back in time with Repository Time Travel. Users can select a date and time in the past and SMARTS™ will reload the project at that past state in a read-only format. This version can be tested, reported on, and exported. In a sense, this new feature enables users to create releases retroactively. Plus, if necessary, users can restore the project to that state so that it can be edited.
Accessibility, Transparency, and Understandability
As mentioned in our previous post on explainability, Understandable AI focuses on making AI accessible, transparent, and understandable to all stakeholders. We at Sparkling Logic, have taken that same framework and applied it to decision management. “Understandable Decisions” seeks to make decision logic, which may or may not include AI, accessible, transparent, and understandable to all stakeholders. A repository is a major component that makes accessibility and transparency possible. In our next post, we’ll discuss how we’re making decisions understandable through AI Assistant.
Learn more about Sparkling Logic’s SMARTS™ Data-Powered Decision Manager.