User:Davin fifield/Oracle Policy Automation

In computing,Oracle Policy Automation (often abbreviated to OPA) is a suite of software products for modeling and deploying business rules within enterprise applications. Oracle acquired OPA in December 2008 when it purchased Australian software company RuleBurst Holdings, then trading as Haley. Oracle Policy Automation was designed by RuleBurst to transform legislation and policy documents into executable business rules, particularly for the calculation of benefit entitlements and payment amounts. Although OPA was originally developed for and sold to the public sector, the approach it adopts is applicable to many industries.

Features and Components
Oracle Policy Modeling is a Windows desktop application for transforming legislation and policy documents into executable business rules. Rules are written in Word and Excel documents using phrases in languages such as English, Chinese and French. These rule documents can be shared amongst business and IT stakeholders, and commentary can be added into the documents without affecting the structure of the rules themselves. Other features of Oracle Policy Modeling include integrated test case execution and debugging capabilities, and the definition of interviews for interactive rule-based assessments. Interview screen order and branching logic can be defined using visual flow diagrams.

The Oracle Policy Automation runtime comprises three technologies:
 * Oracle Web Determinations: An interview application that uses screens, rules and flows defined in Oracle Policy Modeling to deliver Internet- and intranet-based interactive assessments. Data entered is used in combination with backward chaining to determine which screens need to be shown to the user in order to reach a decision.
 * Oracle Determinations Server: A WS-I Basic Profile compliant SOAP-based web service that exposes decision-making endpoints for deployed policy models. By passing data to Oracle Determinations Server, and receiving responses in return, enterprises can integrate rule-based decision-making with other applications and BPM solutions. Examples include Oracle's Siebel, or BPEL-orchestrated business processes. If insufficient data is provided to reach a decision, Oracle Determinations Server is able to explain what additional data may be required.
 * Oracle Determinations Engine: The engine used by both Oracle Web Determinations and Oracle Determinations Server, it is also available as a native Java and .NET API. Oracle Determinations Engine provides both full forward chaining and backward chaining capabilities, as well as low-level access to the interview engine. Unlike Rete-based rule engines, a full audit trail of how a decision was reached can always be generated.

Both Oracle Web Determinations and Oracle Determinations Server are supported on a wide variety of application servers, including Oracle WebLogic Server, Microsoft IIS, IBM WebSphere AS and Apache Tomcat.

Connectors for enterprise applications such as Oracle's Siebel and SAP are also available.

Versions
The product now known as Oracle Policy Automation has been sold under several different names. The chronology below shows approximate major version release dates, with the official name in use at the time of release.


 * Oracle Policy Automation 10.1. Released March 24th, 2010
 * Oracle Policy Automation 10.0. Released December 1st, 2009
 * Oracle Policy Automation 9.4. Released December 2008
 * Haley Office Rules 2008 [version 9.3]. Released July 2008
 * RuleBurst 9.1. Released December 2007
 * RuleBurst 9.0. Released June 2007
 * RuleBurst 8.5. Released November 2006
 * RuleBurst 8.1. Released June 2006
 * RuleBurst 8.0. Released March 2006
 * RuleBurst 7.0. Released April 2005

RuleBurst 7.0 was the successor to a different product called STATUTE Expert that had similar capabilities, but was based on a Rete engine. Although customers of STATUTE Expert were able to upgrade to the later versions, RuleBurst 7.0 was the first version of the product that has become known as Oracle Policy Automation today.

Acquisition of Haley Systems by RuleBurst, and Resulting Product Confusion
RuleBurst acquired the assets of Haley Systems in November 2007. At the time RuleBurst and Haley were both marketing "natural language business rules" software, and were considered competitors.

Prior to being acquired, Haley Systems had licensed its HaleyAuthority rules product to Siebel Systems. HaleyAuthority was made available in Siebel 8.0, under the name Siebel Business Rules.

When RuleBurst acquired Haley, it adopted the better-known Haley name for both its company and product branding. HaleyAuthority became known as Haley Expert Rules, and the RuleBurst product became known as Haley Office Rules.

When Oracle acquired RuleBurst/Haley, Oracle also began jointly marketing OPA with the Siebel CRM solution.

The similarity in names, the fact that Haley Expert Rules was embedded in Siebel, and the joint marketing of OPA with Siebel, have led some commentators to incorrectly refer to Oracle Policy Automation/Haley Office Rules/RuleBurst and Haley Expert Rules/HaleyAuthority interchangeably as "Haley" or "Haley Rules". However, the two products were very separate and distinct offerings, and the latter - i.e. the original Haley product that was embedded within Siebel - is no longer being actively developed.

Oracle Policy Automation continues to be available as a standalone offering, as well as providing an integrated rules solution for Siebel.