Model-based Solutions for Advanced Vacation Days Challenge
I provided two solutions for DMCommunity.org Challenge “Vacation Days Advanced”. So far, all decision models submitted as solutions for the old Jan-2016 Challenge and the new…
Topic
Optimization
40 posts
“Model-based” vs. “Method-based” Approaches to Decision Modeling
In Aug-2018 Prof. Robert Fourer gave a tutorial "Model-based Optimization", in which he compares two essentially different approaches to modeling optimization problem:…
DMCommunity Challenge July-2018 “Zoo, Buses, and Kids”
The July’s challenge "Zoo, Buses, and Kids" deals with a very simple optimization problem: "300 kids need to travel to the London zoo. The school may rent 40 seats and 30 seats…
Raymond Smullyan’s Retro-Analysis and Decision Modeling
When I learned that the famous Prof. Raymond Smullyan passed away this February at the age of 97, I felt grateful to the man whose books and puzzles my friends and I enjoyed…
Building a Custom Scheduler with OpenRules and JSR-331
One of the largest Japanese telecom company is successfully using OpenRules being integrated with a BPM product produced by our partner Intra-Mart. Last month this customer asked…
Business Rules and Tacit Knowledge
Listening several recent presentations of Pragmatic Dave Thomas (see this and this), I cannot help getting back to the fundamental decision modeling problem: Rules vs. Tacit…
Decision Models: Finding Alternative and Optimal Decisions
People frequently assume that a good, consistent decision model should produce one and only one decision (solution) for any valid input. However, in real-world applications we…
Solving Rule Conflicts – Part 2
“The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters”, Francisco Goya Defeasible Logic and Business Rules with Probabilities Modern rules and decisions management systems provide effective…
Combining Constraint Solving with Business Rules and Machine Learning – CoCoMiLe 2013
The integration of different decision making techniques finally is finding its home under the roof of the Decision Management movement. I am glad that an integrated Constraint…
Rule Violations and Over-Constrained Problems
"Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist." – Pablo Picasso Practical people know that one of the most important property of a business rule is its ability…
Fischer vs. Kasparov vs. Karpov
On a long flight back to the US I had a few hours to kill. So, I decided to implement one of my favorite modeling tests that I used to give to my students and they always enjoyed…
Rule Engines: RETE and Alternatives
The famous RETE algorithm was invented by Dr. Charles Forgy more than 30 years ago and it still remains the foundation for most implementations of inferential rule engines.…