James Owen
KBSC

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James has been involved in rulebased systems on a professional basis beginning in 1997 with Neuron Data Nexpert at FedEx LEC&C VEA project and later with ND Advisor version 2.0.  In 1998-99 he worked with Dr. Charles Forgy on the Ericsson Geobility project using OPSJ.  Later, he ventured out into JRules 3.0 at Bell South with Dr. Forgy and Dr. Hafedh Mili on the PARIS project.  James has worked for InfoWorld as a featured editor writing many BRMS articles since 2004.  He has consulted with Lloyds TSB in London, O2 in Müchen, ILOG in Paris and most of the Fortune 100 companies in the USA. 

James has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Louisiana Tech and an MBA from LSUS.  

Presently he resides in Fort Worth, Texas, near DFW where he attends his son's Blues/Jazz gigs nearby whenever he is in town and his wife's art festivals.  They have a Rhodesian Ridgeback and a Golden Retriever for company. 
Most initial BRMS (Business Rule Maintenance System) – or Rulebased – projects are often approached in the same manner:  Someone hears of a successful project that has been done by another company, usually at a trade show or seminar, and they hear of the outrageous claims of savings in time and money and, being human, they want these same kind of savings for  their company as well.  So they contact a rule vendor or two or three and have them come to their company and do a presentation of what they can do for them.  The vendor’s sales staff will, naturally, promise almost anything to get the order.  

The customer, if they don’t have someone on staff who has been on such a project in the past, will be at the mercy of the vendor’s sales staff for the truth.  Having been on upwards of 30 or more rule  projects in many different industries over the past twenty years, mostly successful, some not, I have become somewhat experienced on what makes up a successful project. 

In this talk James will present some of the factors that make up a successful project and some of the pitfalls that a good manager should look out for to prevent a failure.