I figured that I might as well take the time to clean up some of the articles that I’ve written in the past and drop them on the web site. The first cab off the rank is something I put together to point out some of the limitations when using rules engines to capture business logic, and technologies that might help us past these limitations.
Beyond Rules Engines
Agent technology represents a new generation of software that brings the power and sophistication of goal–directed reasoning and planning to business applications for the first time. The technology was developed during the early 80s in reaction to the perceived limitations of the rule–based systems (expert systems) that were in wide use at the time. Goal–directed technology builds on the rule–based technologies that preceded it, overcoming their limitations by integrating support for procedural reasoning; the step–by–step, trial–and–error approach that a person typically uses to solve a problem.
Goal–Directed technology enables the development of more flexible and robust applications; applications that are aligned with the business and that allow enterprise systems to adapt rapidly in the face of changing requirements.