Policy Server for Business Rule Management

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Solution Overview

Problem

Managing and tracking business policy rules across various organizational structures is challenging due to manual processes, making creation, modification, and auditing time-consuming and labor-intensive, with no efficient way to track changes or enforce compliance.

Innovation Solution

A policy server executes a policy application that models and stores business policy rules using an extensible framework, allowing for creation, modification, and auditing through user interfaces and application programming interfaces, enabling effective date management and conflict resolution.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If manual processes are used to manage business policy rules, then flexibility in customization is maintained, but productivity and time efficiency deteriorate

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepolicy rule management efficiencyVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

A policy server acts as an intermediary between applications and business policy rules. The policy server receives rule requests from applications, identifies applicable business policy rules from stored rules, and provides them back to applications. This intermediary system automates the management of business policy rules, eliminating manual processes while maintaining system flexibility through configurable rule structures and extensible frameworks.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Loss of information

If business policy rules are stored and managed manually, then implementation simplicity is maintained, but loss of information occurs through inability to track changes

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepolicy rule change trackingVSAvoiddata storage structure
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by automatically storing complete histories of business policy rules including all versions, effective dates, and termination dates. When policy rules are created or modified, the system proactively captures and stores this information in structured data storage devices, eliminating the need for manual tracking efforts and ensuring complete auditability of rule changes over time.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

3Loss of time

If manual modification of controls is performed, then adaptability to specific needs is maintained, but loss of time occurs during creation and modification

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepolicy rule creation and modification timeVSAvoidpolicy rule management ease
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of timeVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The policy server enables self-service operations where applications automatically call the policy server to retrieve applicable business policy rules based on their needs. The policy server autonomously identifies and returns relevant rules without requiring manual intervention. This self-service mechanism dramatically reduces the time required for policy rule creation and modification while maintaining ease of operation through simple API interactions.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

4Adaptability or versatility

If extensible framework architecture is used, then adaptability to business-specific needs is improved, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvebusiness-specific customizationVSAvoidframework architecture complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system employs segmentation by dividing the policy management functionality into distinct modular components: policy definitions, policy rules, policy servers, and data storage devices. Each component has a specific function and can be independently configured and managed. This modular segmentation enables extensibility and adaptability to business-specific needs while managing complexity through clear separation of concerns and standardized interfaces between components.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS8726286B2Modeling and consuming business policy rules
Publication Date: 2014.05.13 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC
  • US8726286B2 patent drawing
  • US8726286B2 patent drawing
  • US8726286B2 patent drawing

AI summary

Concepts and technologies are described herein for modeling and consuming business policy rules. A policy server executes a policy application for modeling and storing the business policy rules. The business policy rules are modeled and stored in a data storage device according to an extensible policy framework architecture that can be tailored by administrators or other entities to support business-specific needs and/or operations. The modeled business policy rules can be used to support enforcement of business policy rules against various business operations, as well as allowing histories and/or other audits of business policy rules to be completed based upon information stored as the business policy rules.