Rapid Prototyping of Business Rule-Based Systems with Controlled Natural Language and Semantic Web Software

We present methods for applying controlled natural language (CNL) and Semantic Web user interfaces to make rapid prototypes of business rule-based systems. This helps system developers quickly demonstrate design choices to stakeholders. CNLs provide a balance between understandability for laypersons and unambiguous specificity for programmers. Executable CNLs generate rudimentary systems automatically and thus quickly, which suits rapid prototyping. The Semantic Web provides a wide range of free and open tools for standardized forms of data representation and logic, whose potential application includes business rules.We identify several general categories of business rules that each map to a core form of Semantic Web logic that can implement it. This work then presents prototyping methods that apply these mappings. Different Semantic Web software interface components demonstrate different aspects of each form of logic. The Semantic Web ontology editor Protégé illustrates our methods, but any equivalent Semantic Web software can apply. Example rapid prototypes in Protégé from the frequently used fictional business rules case EU-Rent serve here as illustrative scenarios that evaluate our methods