database management systems

Although this book's title may lead you to believe it is solely about developing a business rules engine, it is much more. First, to answer the question that developers may want to know about the book - yes, there is code and it can be downloaded from the web site that supports the book. However, in my opinion, the real reason to buy this book is to gain a deeper understanding of the practical aspects of incorporating business rules into applications. Where books such as "Principles of the Business Rule Approach" (ISBN 0201788934) cover the subject well from the conceptual and systems analyst perspectives, this is the only book to approach business rules from a tools and integration perspective.

Topics range from data modeling to working with batch processes, and every relevant consideration in between. You'll find that the author heavily favors the use of reference data, which is no coincidence because he wrote, in my opinion, the definitive book on that topic as well - "Managing Reference Data in Enterprise Databases" (ISBN 1558606971). More importantly, though, is how thoroughly this book covers all issues associated with developing and implementing a business rules engine, especially with respect to enterprise data architectures and associated databases.

If you have mastered the concepts of business rules and are ready to implement them this book is the place to start.