Define rule tables in Word documents

When using multiple rules to prove an attribute, you must be extremely careful to ensure that you have closed the logic with your rules. If all of the rules proving your conclusion (goal) attribute do not provide full logical coverage, your rules will not cover every possible situation.

Imagine that you wanted to add the following rules to your model:

the passenger's favorite color = "blue" if

the passenger selected the blue seat

the passenger's favorite color = "orange" if

the passenger selected the orange seat

the passenger's favorite color = "purple" if

the passenger selected the purple seat

If there were a fourth seat color (eg "olive"), then the rules would not cope with that situation.

Instead of using multiple rules to prove the goal, you use rule tables to cover this situation. Rule tables provide an invisible layer of truth management by enforcing the effective creation of additional conditions and enforcing question order to avoid goal exhaustion when your rules are built.

The following diagram shows how this table must be structured:

conclusion
value	condition
value	condition
value	otherwise

The first row of the table defines which attribute will be used as the conclusion attribute for the rule.

The left hand column is used to specify values (includes mathematical expressions) which will set the value of the conclusion attribute if the condition in the right hand column of the same row is satisfied.

The final row provides an alternative conclusion, to which the conclusion will be set if none of the conditional rows are satisfied.

Add a rule table in Word

To add a rule table in Word:

Place the cursor on a new blank line in your Word rules document and click the Rule Table button on the Oracle Policy Modeling toolbar.
A pre-formatted table will be inserted.




	otherwise

Enter your conclusion in the first row of the table.

the passenger's favorite color


	otherwise

In each subsequent row of the table enter a value in the left hand column and the condition that sets it in the right hand column.

the passenger's favorite color
"blue"	the passenger selected the blue seat
"orange"	the passenger selected the orange seat
"purple"	the passenger selected the purple seat
	otherwise

In the final row, enter a value for the alternative conclusion in the left hand column.

the passenger's favorite color
"blue"	the passenger selected the blue seat
"orange"	the passenger selected the orange seat
"purple"	the passenger selected the purple seat
uncertain	otherwise