Task 6: Creating a simulation

In this task, you run a simulation to assess the performance of the rules and the potential consequences of change.

Simulations indicate how rule changes impact the business. You usually run a simulation on a large set of scenarios, and you often derive simulations from historical data. The results produce a report that you can use to assess the performance of a set of rules without impacting the rules or the applications on which they act.

In the previous task, you created a test suite to compare the actual results with the expected results. In this task, you generate an Excel file template in Decision Center, and create a simulation based on data stored in the Excel file.

Time This task should take you about 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

Step 1: Generate the Excel file

To create a simulation, you first generate an Excel file template based on the Miniloan project.

To generate the Excel file:

Make sure that you are still signed in to Decision Center as rtsUser1 and that the Project in use is set to miniloan-rules.
Click the Compose tab.
Select Simulation, and click OK.
In the Name field, enter Miniloan Simulation, and then click Next.
Keep the default option to test all the rules in the current project, and click Next.
In the Format list, select Excel 2003 as the format of Excel file.
Click the Generate template link.
On the Generate Scenario File Template page, select the English (United States) locale for the template, and click Generate.
The generation of the Excel file might take a few seconds to complete.
Click the template.xls link, and save the Excel file to your local drive.

Step 2: Run the simulation

To complete the simulation, you must upload the Excel file containing the scenarios. For the purpose of this tutorial, the scenario file containing test data for the simulation is already created for you (miniloan-simu.xls).

Note:

You can also use the Excel file that you just generated, edit it offline and populate it with the scenarios contained in <InstallDir>/gettingstarted/EnterpriseConsole/miniloan-simu.csv.

You can now finish creating the simulation in Decision Center and run it. Then, you take a look at the report to view the results of the simulation.

To finish and run the simulation:

If you are still on the Template Download page, click Back to return to the simulation.
On the Scenarios page (Step 3: Scenarios), click the Browse button and select <InstallDir>/gettingstarted/EnterpriseConsole/miniloan-simu.xls.
This scenario file is already populated with the scenarios.
Click Finish and Run to save the simulation and run it.
Make sure that the Sample server is selected, and then click Run.
Wait until the simulation is complete.

The report opens and shows that 100 scenarios were executed, and that the execution was successful.
Sign out of Decision Center.

After testing the ruleset in Decision Center, users with the appropriate role can deploy the changes to Rule Execution Server.

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