Decision rule
A decision rule states how a recurring decision in a process is made: under which conditions which outcome applies, and who decides when the rule does not fit. When several conditions combine, rules are often written as a decision table, with one row per combination of conditions and its outcome.
What is a decision rule?
Typical examples are credit checks, discount approvals, the acceptance of a deviation, or the choice between repair and replacement. Written down, a rule can be applied by others, checked, taught and — when it is stable — automated. A standard notation for decision tables exists for cases where rules feed software.
Not every judgement fits a rule. A good decision rule captures the part that can be made explicit, lists the known exceptions, and names the person who decides the rest.
Not to be confused with judgement as a whole. Rules capture the explicit part of a decision; the experience behind the exceptions is often tacit knowledge that has to be captured with the person who holds it.
Why it matters for SMEs
For example: “orders above a set amount from customers without payment history go to the finance manager” was written down. The exemption for customers backed by a parent-company guarantee was not — it lived with the finance manager, and nobody knew when it stopped applying.
For SMEs, making a handful of critical decision rules explicit is often the fastest way to reduce dependency on one person.
Decision rule in the MentX approach
MentX captures how your company really works: the knowledge of your key people and the processes they run. We offer both a hands-on service approach — mapping your processes and capturing the knowledge behind them, from meetings, workshops and a guided intake — and our own personality-aware knowledge base, with full source attribution, in your own Knowledge Space. We build on the tools you already use and add best-practice solutions where they fit.
Decision rules are captured with their exceptions and the source of each, when you capture your operations. See also can AI learn how your manager decides?