Rules Engine - pros and cons

Question

I\'m auditing a project that uses what is called a Rules Engine. In short, it\'s a way to externalize business logic from application code.

This concept is entirely

Answer 1

The biggest pro that I've seen for rules engines is that it lets the Business Rule owners implement the business rules, instead of putting the onus on programmers. Even if you have an agile process where you are constantly getting feedback from stakeholders and going through rapid iterations, it's still not going to achieve the level of efficiency that can be achieved by having the people making the business rules implement them as well.

Also, you can't under-emphasize the value in removing the recompile-retest-redeploy cycle that can result from a simple rule change, if the rules are embedded in code. There are often several teams that are involved in putting the blessing on a build, and using a Rules Engine can make much of that unnecessary.