Rules

While departments and processes define task-handling business context, rules define task-handling business logic. Generally, a rule is represented by one or more conditions and one or more actions. If all of the conditions are true, all of the actions will be executed. If any condition is not true, none of the actions will be executed.

An important aspect of rules in iWD is separation of implementation details from business-level logic. This allows expression of rules in an easy-to-understand human language, such as, "If task is due in 10 or more minutes, increase priority by 10." The implementation details are hidden in rule templates, and users who configure business logic deal only with high-level logical expressions.

A rule can be defined in one of two ways: as a linear rule or as a decision table.

Linear rules are intended for complex rules that have many conditions. Each condition or action is represented by a single line in the rule.

Decision tables represent a more compact form of rule representation; however, they might not be as well suited to complex rules. In a decision table, multiple rules are grouped together, so that each condition or action is represented by a column in a table, and each rule represents a row.