Why can’t standards use the real-world meaning of ‘decision’?
A person close to the DMN (Decision Model Notation) standard recently wrote about its definition of “decision”:
“This means a technical rather than business-person definition of ‘decision’, as the businessperson is not the target audience for the specification (metamodel) but of the results of the specification (models).”
My Response
Well, that’s a shame. Many people will be looking toward the DMN for a business vocabulary they can use in communicating with business people. So the communication gap between IT and business is not being closed in the area.
My personal opinion is:
- Computers have become so powerful these days that they should be speaking *our* language (in structured, carefully defined form), not the other way around.
- Standards (and standards organizations) that fail to move the ball forward in that regard are failing its audience in the larger sense, no matter how good the standard for its chosen area. (And I do hope DMN is good in that latter sense.)
Tags: decision management, decision models, decisions, DMN, DMN standard, miscommunication
Ronald G. Ross
Ron Ross, Principal and Co-Founder of Business Rules Solutions, LLC, is internationally acknowledged as the “father of business rules.” Recognizing early on the importance of independently managed business rules for business operations and architecture, he has pioneered innovative techniques and standards since the mid-1980s. He wrote the industry’s first book on business rules in 1994.