Referential rule integrity (RRI) is an IDC term describing the potential for business rule management system inference engines to deliver incoherent results. RRI is an insidious problem, although little is known about just how serious this problem is. Therefore, what's needed is recognition of the RRI problem and identification of techniques and methods to address this problem. Vendors have largely been tight-lipped about the subject of RRI - mostly because, until now, it has never entered into the universe of discourse. In a departure from classic IDC research, this study seeks to both define the RRI problem as well as provide insights into how vendor should address this problem.

This IDC study therefore serves as a primer focused on understanding the advantages and disadvantages of various approaches to business rule processing, the particular problems characteristic of inference engines, the reasoning behind how to address the RRI problem, and the methods that vendors should employ for addressing RRI and improving system reliability and integrity.

"While the use of inference engines in business rule process bring to light a reliability question, there are approaches to address the consistency, completeness, and coherence of the rulebase that can largely put this issue of reliability to rest," said Stephen D. Hendrick, group vice president for Application Development And Deployment research at IDC.