Business Rules

Decision table. Explains complex gateways

Diamond shapes in a workflow design are unlike "real diamonds", you won't be happy when seeing many, many diamond gateway shapes, and with lots of complex flow connectors in between. But when there are really many factors that can influence a decision, how do you avoid drawing lots of gateways? The answer is to use a decision table instead. Decision table involves three sections - conditions, actions and rules. Conditions are factors that influence a workflow, while actions are the things to do, resulting from the conditions. Rules are formed by matching condition(s) against action(s). So with decision table, complex business logic can be represented clearly, in the simplest form.