James Owen Professional Profile
James C. Owen
Senior Consultant / Architect, Fair Isaac Professional Services
James Owen is a Senior Consultant / Architect in the EDM team within the Fair Isaac Professional Services. He has been a BRMS team lead on many projects including but not limited to world banks, global and local insurance companies, global and regional telecom companies, legal research companies, medical and pharmaceutical companies, retirement communities and utility companies. James is an expert in rulebase (BRMS engine) performance metrics and benchmarks. He has published many papers and articles on rulebased systems applications and performance.
Relevant Experience
James’ accomplishments include: ■ Architect and/or lead rulebase (Fair Isaac, Blaze Advisor) resource for large international insurance and financial companies such as ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ NUHC (Norwich Union Health Care) in the UK Discover in Chicago Pekin Insurance in Illinois
Homeland Security (Informatix): Architect and rulebase lead for Homeland Border Protection Initiative for border with Mexico and Canada as well as all sea ports. Homeland Security (Lockheed): Architect and rulebase lead (Production System, OPSJ) for Homeland Security Border Protection project. O2 Telecom, Munich, Germany: Architect and lead rulebase lead (ILOG, JRules) for BRMS that would inventory and focus sales leads for all incoming clients. GMAC Insurance: Architect and lead rulebase (ILOG, JRules) resource for on-line pricing system that would determine the APR and fees for loan applications made on-line. Lloyds TSB Bank, London: Architect and lead resource for on-line client evaluation and loan pricing system using a rulebase (ILOG, JRules). Architect and lead resource for Bell South PMAP BRMS project to decrease penalties from $4M per month to less than $100K. Ericsson: Architect and lead resource for Erisccon Geobility rulebase (Production Systems, OPSJ) project, a precursor to almost all Personal Information Management systems used on most cell phones today. Some of the applications still have not been implemented. Neuron Data: Worked on the Northwest Financial conversion from hard coded accounting system to one based on backward-chaining rulebased (Neuron Data Expert) system. Neuron Data: Technical Lead for Houston Power and Light system that determined how to schedule down time for all of their plants based on personnel, fuel type, seasonal demands, etc. using backward-chaining reasoning (Neuron Data Expert) system. FedEx, Dallas: Team lead for LEC&C Virtual Enterprise Architecture (VEA) rulebased (Neuron Data Expert and Neuron Data Advisor) system to integrate vendors, retailers,
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James Owen Professional Profile
shippers, finance companies and wholesalers for instant delivery of parts or finished products. ■ ■ ■ ■ FedEx, Memphis: Technical Lead for the Domestic Module Pricing (Unix, C/C++) FedEx Memphis: Technical Lead for FedEx Marketing (Unix, system backup network ring) Developed and maintained various accounting systems for nursing homes, oil and gas production, small insurance companies, etc. Developed and maintained requirements system for ArkLaGas, a subsidiary of NORAM.
James’ skill set includes but is not limited to: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Harvesting and documentation of business rules Discovery, analysis, and documentation of business process requirements Analysis and documentation of software functional requirements Translating functional requirements appropriately for technical implementation Modeling data Writing business rules Testing and quality analysis Planning and executing service and support agreements Training end users in use of production systems Post-implementation end user support Creation of end user training documents Java, C/C++, Unix SysAdmin, etc. Object Oriented Analysis and Design, OOAD
Professional Background
James is an annual presenter for JavaMUG (Metroplex User Group) on Java-oriented rulebased systems. He organized a sub-group of JavaMUG that is focused only on this topic. He is a former chapter president of IEEE. His publications include: InfoWorld
“Clash of the Java Rules Titans” (17 July 2006, p.34) ILOG JRules vs FICO Blaze Advisor vs Mind Box) “Corticon Plays by Different Rules” (10 July 2006, p.28) “ILOG Extends the Tools for Rules” (10 April 2006, p. 22) “JRules 5.0 Touches All The Bases” (27 June 2005, pp. 25-26) “Whatever Happened to … AI?” (28 Feb 2005, p. 32+) “Bringing .NET Rules to Light” (18 Feb 2005, p.12) “Putting Rules Engines to Work” (Main Article, 28 June 2004, pp. 35-41)
James Owen Professional Profile
“Putting Rules Engines to Work” (PDF Version of above article, Free Login Membership) “Putting Rules Engines to Work” (PDF Version at EquiFax) “New Standards Open Up BRMS” (Short Article on BRMS Standards) “Business Rules For Newbies” (Short Article on Terms and Acronyms) “Budget-friendly BRMS” (OPSJ 6.0 and Jess 6.1 Review, 15 Mar 2004, pp. 24-26) “Blaze Burns for Business Apps” (Blaze Advisor 5.1 Review, 19 Jan 2004, pp. 28-29) “Bring Business Logic to Light” (JRules 4.5 Review, 15 Sep 2003, pp. 32-33) “Benchmarking the Rules Engine” (Miss Manners and Waltz Benchmarks) “Brief Tutorial On AI” (Requires Power Point XP)
Other Publications:
o “Virtual Enterprise Architecture Using Java, Advisor Expert System and CORBA," First Place White Paper in May, 1998, Technical Conference Briefing for Neuron Data, 25 pages. o “Design of an Intelligent Database for a Home for Retarded Citizens," Decision Sciences Theory and Applications, Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference, Southwest Region, San Antonio, Texas, March 4-7, 1992, p.97. o "Developing an Expert System for Statistical Procedures," International Business Schools Computer User Group, Vol 3, Number 3, Fall 1991, pp. 24-32. o "Expert Systems Applications to Economic Forecasting," Southwestern Journal of Economic Abstracts, Volume 11, Number 1, 1990, pp.81-82. o "Developing a Rule-Based System for Statistical Procedures," Proceedings of the 21st Annual Conference of Southwest Decision Sciences Institute, Dallas, Texas, February, 1990, pp. 82-84.
Clients and Past Employers
KnowledgeBased Systems Corporation, President and Chief Consultant (Unix, C/C++) Morris-Dickson Wholesale Drugs, Senior Software Engineer (databae, C.) EE Enterprises, Chief Design Engineer (Heat Trace, MCC, PLC) Electric Supply Company, Technical Sales Engineer Cutler-Hammer, Technical Sales Engineer (Switchgear, Motor control, PLC) Sylvania Switchgear, Technical Sales Engineer (Switchgear) Sale Electrical Supply, Technical Sales Engineer Federal Pacific, Technical Sales Engineer (Switchgear)