JP5250481B2 - Rule design support method and rule design support device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a rule design support method and a rule design support device.

  In order to improve productivity and quality of business in a company, a method is known in which business rules and standards are ruled in IF_THEN format and system processing is performed based on the rules. In recent years, there is business rule management software that manages the rule independently of the system program code. By managing and executing the rules independently, it is intended to increase the flexibility of business and system when changing rules.

  For example, a configuration of a business rule management device for managing business rules and registering, storing, and retrieving business rules is disclosed (for example, see Patent Document 1).

JP 2001-5654 A

  With the business rule management device described in the above prior art, business rules can be registered and searched efficiently.

  However, the rule processing cannot be made efficient. In particular, companies are expected to see an increase in the number of business rules that must be managed by companies, and the number of business rules that companies must manage will increase. It is thought that it is required more than ever.

  There are many check rules in the business rules that check whether the data to be processed is in compliance with the standards and rules, or in compliance with the compliance standards. When there are many check rules, it takes time to sequentially process all the registered rules. In addition, there is a high possibility that an error will occur due to the rule check, and correction of data corresponding to the error will increase. Furthermore, even if the data has already been checked after the correction, the correction of the data increases the possibility that the corresponding check rule will be processed again, and that it will be caught again and corrected again.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its main object to provide a technique for improving the efficiency of rule processing.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention comprises the following arrangement. That is, a rule design support method in a rule design support apparatus that supports system design using a rule that describes a check rule for a specific data item, the rule design support apparatus includes a storage unit that stores data, and a data An arithmetic unit that performs arithmetic processing on the control unit. The calculation unit of the rule design support device stores a plurality of rules defining check rules for specific data items in the storage unit, and shows a relationship between the rules stored in the storage unit and the data items used by the rules , Generating a relation table of rules and data items, classifying a plurality of rules into a plurality of groups using the relation table, and executing the processing order of the plurality of classified groups of the rules included in the group Setting based on the number, setting the execution order of the rules included in each of the plurality of groups based on the reference number of data items used by the plurality of rules included in the group, Execute.

  According to the present invention, rule processing can be made more efficient.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the business rule design support system which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a processing flow figure of the business rule design support method concerning this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the business rule table which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the related table of the business rule and item which concern on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the business rule classification table which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the business rule process order table which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the related rule number calculation table which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the business rule process order table which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the business rule execution support system which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a processing flow figure of the business rule execution support method concerning this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the business data input screen which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the business rule process status management table which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a message output in the business data input screen which concerns on this Embodiment.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

<Business rule design support system configuration example>
A configuration example of a business rule design support system 100, which is a hardware configuration for carrying out the business rule design support method of the present invention, is shown in FIG.

  The business rule design support system 100 includes a CPU 110, a memory 120, a communication port 130, an input device 140, an output device 150, and a storage device 160.

  The CPU 110 governs overall control of the business rule design support system 100, and reads the business rule processing order determination program 170 stored in the storage device 160 into the memory 120 and executes it, whereby the business rule design support system 100 described above is executed. Various functions are realized.

  For example, the business rule registration unit 101, the business rule and item relation table creation unit 102, the business rule classification unit 103, the inter-group processing order determination unit 104, the related rule number calculation unit 105 for each business rule, and the intra-group business rule processing The order determination unit 106 is realized.

  The memory 120 can be configured by a semiconductor memory device, for example. The communication port 130 is a device for performing communication. For example, the business rule processing order determination program 170 may be received from another information processing apparatus through the communication port 130 via the network and stored in the memory 120 or the storage device 160.

  Various tables such as the business rule table 300 may be stored in another information processing apparatus, received via the communication port 130, and used for the processing of the business rule processing order determination program 170.

  The input device 140 is a device used for inputting data into the business rule design support system 100 by an operator or the like, and functions as a user interface. For example, a keyboard or a mouse can be used as the input device 140.

  The output device 150 is a device for outputting information to the outside, and functions as a user interface. For example, a display or a printer can be used as the output device 150.

  The storage device 160 can be, for example, a hard disk device or a semiconductor storage device. The storage device 160 stores tables such as the business rule processing order determination program 170 and the business rule table 300. The business rule processing order determination program 170 can also be configured by a plurality of programs.

  The business rule design support system 100 may be configured from a so-called server or workstation.

<Process flow>
Next, in the business rule design support method according to the present embodiment, the processing procedure that is a feature thereof, that is, the processing flow of the business rule processing order determination program 170 is shown in FIGS. 3 to 8 according to the processing flow of FIG. While explaining.

  Here, as an example of business, in insurance product sales, business that receives an insurance application from a customer and an application reception system for that purpose are targeted. In this business, an example of designing a business rule execution processing order for checking by the application reception system whether there is an error in the contents of the insurance application from the customer or whether it matches the business rules of the insurance company will be described.

<Step 101> Business Rule Registration Business rules are registered from the input device 140. The registered business rules are stored in the business rule table 300.

  FIG. 3 shows a table configuration example of the business rule table 300. The business rule table 300 describes a rule number field 310 for identifying a rule, a rule condition field 320 corresponding to a condition part of the rule and indicating a check content for the data item, and an action when the rule condition part is met. The rule conclusion THEN field 330 and the rule conclusion ELSE field 340 describing the action when the rule condition part is not met.

  The business rule exemplified in the present embodiment is for checking the contents of insurance application. For example, the condition part of the rule of rule number 1 in FIG. 3 is “insurance end” − “insurance start” ≠ “insurance period”, the conclusion THEN part outputs an error with check NG, and the conclusion ELSE part checks OK It is. This is because the difference between the value of the “End of Insurance” data item corresponding to the end date of the insurance contract in the application information and the value of the “Insurance Start” data item corresponding to the start date is the “Insurance Period” data item. This means that an error is output if it is different from the value of.

  In addition to using the input device 140, the business rule registration can be received from another information processing device via the communication port 130 via the network and stored in the storage device 160.

<Step 102> Creation of Business Rule and Item Association Table Using the business rule table 300 for application acceptance work registered in step 101, a business rule and item association table 400 is created.

  From the data items defined in the condition part of each business rule, a table is created in which the relationship between which data item is used in which business rule is clarified.

  FIG. 4 shows a configuration example of the business rule / item association table 400. A rule use item field 410 used in the registration rule, and a rule number field group 420 including registration rule numbers.

  First, in the rule use item field 410, the data item defined in the condition part of each rule in the rule condition part field 320 of the business rule table 300 is extracted, and the item is input. The rule number field group 420 creates a field corresponding to the number in the rule number field 310 of the business rule table 300. In the cell where the row of the rule use item and the column of the rule number intersect, if the item is used with the rule number, a value indicating that is used, in the example of FIG.

  For example, in FIG. 4, rule number 1 uses “insurance start”, “insurance end”, and “insurance period” as the items in the condition part, so the columns of “insurance start”, “insurance end”, and “insurance period” A circle is entered in the cell where the row of “rule number 1” intersects. In addition, since “insurance start” is used in rule numbers 1, 2 and 4, “○” is entered in a cell intersecting each field of “rule number 1”, “rule number 2” and “rule number 4”. Yes. The value indicating that the item is used may not be a circle but may be another value.

<Step 103> Business Rule Classification Using the business rule / item relation table 400 created in step 102, business rules are grouped and classified.

  The business rule group is a group of business rules that directly or indirectly use the same data item in the condition part.

  Specifically, the business rules are classified by using the same group for two business rules if there is at least one same data item.

  In the example of the business rule and item relation table 400 in FIG. 4, rule number 1 and rule number 2 are set to the same group because the “insurance start” item is used in both rules. Also, rule number 3 uses the “insurance period” item of rule number 1 out of rule number 1 and rule number 2, and is therefore in the same group as rule numbers 1 and 2. If this is repeated for each rule, rule numbers 1 to 7 are classified as the same group.

  Regarding the rule number 8, since the “contractor name” and “direct debit contractor name” of the usage items are not used in any other rules, the group is only the rule number 8. Since rule number 9 does not have the same use items as other rules, it is a group. FIG. 5 shows the situation of the above group classification. In FIG. 5, rule numbers 1 to 7 are shown as group 1, rule number 8 is shown as group 2, and rule number 9 is shown as group 3.

  In this way, it can be classified into group 1 of rule numbers 1 to 7, group 2 of rule number 8, and group 3 of rule number 9, and the group number of each rule is stored in the business rule and item association table 400. To the group number record 510.

<Step 104> Determination of processing order between groups For the group of business rules created in step 103, the priority order of rule execution processing is determined for each group.

  Here, the order of execution processing for each group is determined so as to increase the priority from the order of the number of rules included in the group. For example, rule group 1 includes seven rules, and rule groups 2 and 3 each include one rule. Therefore, rule number 1 to rule number 1 of rule group 1 has priority 1, and rule groups 2 and 3 have the same number of rules, so whichever priority may be higher, rule group 2 has priority over rule number 8. The priority 2 is set to the rule number 9 of the rule group 3 and the priority 3 is set.

  The order in which the number of rules included in the group is large is used, but the order in which the number of rules is small may be used. Further, the priority order may be determined according to a preset order.

  FIG. 6 shows a table configuration example of the business rule processing order table 600 that stores the determined processing order. The business rule processing order table 600 includes a rule number field 610, an inter-group priority order field 620, an intra-group processing order field 630, and a final processing order field 640. The intra-group processing order field 630 and the final processing order field 640 will be described in step 106.

<Step 105> Calculation of the number of related rules for each business rule The number of related rules for each business rule is calculated using the business rule and item relationship table 400 created in step.

  The number of related rules is the total number of other business rules (hereinafter referred to as related rules) that use the same items as the items used in the business rules.

  FIG. 7 shows a table configuration example of the related rule number calculation table 700. The related rule number calculation table 700 is obtained by adding a related rule number record 710 for storing the calculated related rule number for each rule to the business rule and item relation table 400.

  For example, the rule with rule number 1 uses three items of “insurance start”, “insurance end”, and “insurance period” in the related table. First, regarding the “insurance start”, it can be seen from the same record that rule numbers 2 and 4 containing related values are used. That is, there are two related rules. In addition, the next item “End of Insurance” is not used in other rules. The “insurance period” is used in three rule numbers 3, 5, and 7. Therefore, the number of related rules of rule number 1 is 5. Similarly, this is calculated for each rule. The calculated number of related rules for each rule is stored in the corresponding rule number field of the related rule number record 710.

<Step 106> In-Group Business Rule Processing Order Determination The rule processing order in the same group is determined in descending order of the number of related rules calculated in Step 105. In the example of FIG. 7, the rule with rule number 1 having the largest number of related rules of 5 is set as processing order 1 as the first process.

  In the following order, the processing order of each rule is set in descending order of the number of related rules.

  This is because if a rule with a large number of related rules is processed later, if an error occurs after checking the relevant rule, the item is corrected and rechecked, but the related rule using the same item has already been checked. This is because it must be checked again. This recheck increases the possibility of errors in related rules, and increases the load of checking and correcting it. Therefore, the load of checking and correcting is reduced by setting the processing order in which rules with a large number of related rules are checked first.

  FIG. 8 shows the values in the in-group processing order field 630 and the final processing order field 640 stored in the business processing order table 600.

  In the in-group processing order field 630, the processing order within the group set in the descending order of the number of related rules is set. The final processing order field 640 is obtained by determining the processing order of the entire rule from the order values of the inter-group processing order field 620 and the intra-group processing order field 630.

  That is, the rule order is determined by giving priority to the inter-group processing order and then giving priority to the intra-group processing order. In the example of FIG. 8, rule number 1 with an inter-group processing order of 1 and an intra-group processing order of 1 is processing order 1, and finally, an inter-group processing order of 3 and rule number 9 of intra-group processing order 1 Is the last processing order 9.

  By performing the processing of steps 101 to 106, the processing order of the business rules can be determined.

  As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to determine the processing order of business rules for reducing the processing time and correction time of business rules.

  Next, business rule execution processing in the case where business rules whose processing order is determined by the above-described procedure are executed in business will be described.

<Business rule execution processing>
A configuration example of a business rule execution support system 900, which is a hardware configuration for executing business rules, is shown in FIG.

  The business rule execution support system 900 includes a CPU 910, a memory 920, a communication port 930, an input device 940, an output device 950, and a storage device 960. The CPU 910 is responsible for overall control of the business rule execution support system 900, and reads the business rule execution program 970 stored in the storage device 960 into the memory 920 and executes it, whereby the business rule execution support system 900 described above is executed. Various functions are realized.

  Hereinafter, the memory 920, the communication port 930, the input device 940, the output device 950, and the storage device 960 are equivalent to the devices of the business rule design support system 100, and thus description thereof is omitted. Therefore, the business rule execution support system 900 may be a system that is physically the same as the business rule design support system 100 and stores programs and tables corresponding to the respective storage devices.

  The storage device 960 stores a business rule execution program 970, a business rule table 300, a business rule processing order table 600, and a rule processing status management table 1200.

  The business rule table 300 and the business rule processing order table 600 are registered and created by the business rule design support system 100 described above.

  In order to read the business rule table 300 and the business rule processing order table 600, the business rule table 300 and the business rule processing order table 600 are received from the business rule design support system 100 through the communication port 930, for example, via a network. And stored in the storage device 960. Or you may store in the memory | storage device 960 using a storage medium.

  Next, the processing procedure for executing business rules whose processing order has been determined in the business, that is, the processing flow of the business rule execution program 970 will be described according to the processing flow of FIG. 10 and using FIGS. 11 to 13. .

  Here, as an example of business, similar to business rule processing order determination, in insurance product sales, business that accepts an insurance application from a customer and an application reception system for that purpose are targeted. In this business, an example will be described in which the application acceptance system checks whether there are no errors in the contents of the insurance application from the customer and whether it matches the business rules of the insurance company.

<Step 1001> Business data input Business data is input. FIG. 11 shows an example of the business data input screen 1100.

  The business data in this embodiment is insurance application data. A customer who applies for insurance or a sales representative of an insurance sales agent who has received an application inputs data using the input device 940 on the business data input screen 1100. In this example, input is performed by the same system, but input data may be received from another information processing apparatus through the communication port 930, for example, via a network.

  The business data input screen 1100 includes a business data input area 1101, a business data registration button 1102, and a message area 1103.

  The business data input area 1101 includes several input items necessary for application. In the example of FIG. 11, there are information such as an insurance applicant's address, name, contract application date, insurance start period, insurance end period, insurance period, insurance premium payment method and number of payments.

  Using the input device 940, business data is input and a business data registration button 1102 is pressed. The message area 1103 is an area for outputting a check result message based on the rule, which will be described in step 1106.

<Step 1002> Reading Rule Processing Order The business rule processing order table 600 is read from the storage device 960, and the business rule processing order is read.

<Step 1003> Individual Rule Call In accordance with the business processing order read in Step 1002, the individual rules are called from the business rule table 300 in order. For example, at first, in the example of the business rule processing order table 600 of FIG. Therefore, in the example of the business rule table 300 in FIG. 3, a check rule “rule end” “insurance end” − “insurance start” ≠ “insurance period” is called.

  Here, when calling a rule, the business rule processing status management table 1200 is referred to. If the rule has already been processed, the next rule is called.

  A configuration example of the business rule processing status management table 1200 is shown in FIG. The business rule processing status management table 1200 includes a rule number field 1201, a rule processing order field 1202, and a rule processing status field 1203.

  The rule number field 1201 and the rule processing order field 1202 are the rule number and processing order of the business rule processing order table 600 read in step 1002. The rule processing status field 1203 stores the processing status of the rule. If the rule has not yet been processed, the value “unprocessed” is stored, if the rule is processed and OK, “processed OK” is stored, and if the rule is processed and an error has occurred, the value “processed NG” is stored.

  When this step is performed for the first time, all are “unprocessed”. If the processing order is already “processed” OK, the rule order is skipped, and the next “unprocessed” or “processed NG” rule is processed. As a result, it is possible to reduce processing for re-checking rules that have already been processed for rules and that are OK. The update of the rule processing status value will be described in step 1004.

<Step 1004> Execution of Individual Rule Processing The rule called in step 1003 is executed on the business data input in step 1001. For example, since the IF part of rule number 1 is a check rule of “insurance end” − “insurance start” ≠ “insurance period”, the “insurance end”, “insurance start”, “insurance start” of the input business data The value of “period” is applied to the above rule to check whether the IF part is satisfied.

  If the result of the business rule check indicates OK, the value of the rule processing status field 1203 corresponding to the rule number in the rule processing status management table 1200 is updated to “processed OK”. Then, in order to proceed to the next check, the process proceeds to step 1005.

  If the check result is NG, the value of the rule processing status field 1203 corresponding to the rule number in the rule processing status management table 1200 is updated to “processed NG”. And in order to output an error, it changes to step 1006.

<Step 1005> Rule Processing Order Confirmation If the result of the business rule check in step 1004 is OK, the rule processing order read in step 1002 is referred to. If there is a rule in the next order, the rule number is confirmed. . And it changes to step 1003, the rule of the said rule number is called, and the flow of 1004 which performs rule processing is repeated.

  The processing from step 1003 to step 1005 is repeated to process the last rule in the business rule processing order table 600. If there is no next rule, there is no error and the registration of the business data is completed, and the process proceeds to the end. To do.

<Step 1006> Error output If the result of the business rule check in Step 1004 is NG, an error message is output.

  For example, for the business data in the example of FIG. 11, if the IF part of rule number 1 applies “insurance end” − “insurance start” ≠ “insurance period”, “insurance end” is 2011/1/31, “Insurance start” is 2009/2/1 and “Insurance period” is 1 year, so it is NG according to the above check rule.

  Therefore, an error message is output to the error message area of the business data input screen 1100 as shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 13, the “insurance start” and “insurance end” periods do not match the “insurance period”. Please correct. Is output. As a result, the process proceeds to step 1001 where the customer or salesperson who is the user of the system reviews and inputs the “insurance start”, “insurance end” and “insurance period”.

  Here, the items of “insurance start”, “insurance end”, and “insurance period” of rule number 1 are also used in other check rules 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7. Since rule number 1 has the first processing order, even if each item is modified, only rule number 1 needs to be rechecked, and other rules 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 are checked. You only need to check it after it is OK.

  The rule check process execution process is repeated from the input of business data as described above. For example, rule number 6 is the seventh process order. Here, even if an error occurs in the rule number 6, the related rule is only the rule number 7. First, only the rule number 7 needs to be rechecked, and the recheck can be reduced.

  Conversely, if the rule processing order is rule number 1 not the first but the last, check rules 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 have already been checked, but rule number 1 has an error. If there is a correction of an item, it is necessary to check again, and this increases the possibility that an error will occur again to correct it.

  By processing the business rules in the order designed in steps 101 to 106, it is possible to reduce the number of places where other check rules are checked again. As a result, the burden on the user to correct the error can be reduced.

  Although the best mode for carrying out the invention has been described above, the above embodiment is intended to facilitate understanding of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Business rule registration part 102 Business rule and item relation table creation part 103 Business rule classification part 104 Inter-group processing order determination part 105 Related rule number calculation part for every business rule 106 In-group business rule processing order determination part

Claims (16)

A rule design support method in a rule design support device that supports system design using a rule describing a check rule for a specific data item,
The rule design support device includes a storage unit that stores data, and an arithmetic unit that performs arithmetic processing on the data,
The arithmetic unit of the rule design support device,
Storing a plurality of rules defining check rules for specific data items in the storage unit;
Generating an association table of rules and data items indicating a relationship between the rules stored in the storage unit and data items used by the rules;
Classifying the plurality of rules into a plurality of groups using the association table;
Setting the execution order of the processing of the plurality of classified groups based on the number of rules included in the group;
Setting an execution order of rules included in each of the plurality of groups based on the number of references of data items used by the plurality of rules included in the group;
A rule design support method characterized by executing A rule design support method according to claim 1,
A rule design support method, wherein an execution order of processing of the plurality of groups is set in descending order of the number of rules included in each group. A rule design support method according to claim 1 or 2,
A rule design support method, comprising: setting an execution order of rules included in the group in descending order of use of data items used by the plurality of rules included in each group. A rule design support method according to claim 3, wherein
The total number of other rules using the data items used by the rule is calculated as the number of related rules, and the execution order of the rules included in the group is set in the order of the number of related rules. Rule design support method to do. A rule design support method according to claim 4,
A rule design support method, wherein when the number of related rules is the same, the execution order of the rules included in the group is set in descending order of the number of data items used in the rule. A rule design support method according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
A rule design support method, characterized in that when another rule uses a data item used by each rule, the rule and the other rule are classified as the same group. A rule design support method according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
When the data item used by each rule is used by another rule, the rule and the other rule are repeatedly classified as the same group, and the data item commonly used by a plurality of rules is A rule design support method comprising classifying the plurality of rules as a group. A rule design support method according to any one of claims 1 to 7,
A rule design support method, wherein the processing of each rule is executed in accordance with the execution order of the set group and the execution order of the set rule. A rule design support device that supports system design using a rule describing a check rule for a specific data item,
A storage unit that stores data; and an arithmetic unit that performs arithmetic processing on the data;
The computing unit is
Storing a plurality of rules defining check rules for specific data items in the storage unit;
Generating a relation table of rules and data items indicating the relationship between the rules stored in the storage unit and the data items used by the rules;
Classifying the plurality of rules into a plurality of groups using the association table;
The execution order of the processing of the plurality of classified groups is set based on the number of rules included in the group,
A rule design support apparatus, wherein an execution order of rules included in each of the plurality of groups is set based on a reference number of data items used by the plurality of rules included in the group. The rule design support device according to claim 9,
The operation unit sets the execution order of processing of the plurality of groups in descending order of the number of rules included in each group. The rule design support device according to claim 9 or 10,
The rule design support device, wherein the calculation unit sets an execution order of rules included in the group in descending order of the number of data items used by the plurality of rules included in each group. The rule design support device according to claim 11,
The calculation unit calculates the total number of other rules using the data items used by the rule as the number of related rules, and sets the execution order of the rules included in the group in descending order of the number of related rules. A rule design support device characterized by: The rule design support device according to claim 12,
When the number of related rules is the same, the calculation unit sets the execution order of rules included in the group in descending order of the number of data items used in the rule. Support device. The rule design support device according to any one of claims 9 to 13,
The rule calculation support device, wherein, when another rule uses a data item used by each rule, the calculation unit classifies the rule and the other rule as the same group. The rule design support device according to any one of claims 9 to 14,
The arithmetic unit repeats classifying the rule and the other rule as the same group when the data item used by each rule is used by another rule, and is used in common by a plurality of rules. A rule design support apparatus, wherein the plurality of rules including data items to be processed are classified as the same group. The rule design support device according to any one of claims 9 to 15,
The rule design support device, wherein the arithmetic unit executes the processing of each rule in accordance with the execution order of the set group and the execution order of the set rule.

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