Barry Lulas
Technologist and Solution Architect
barry@rulesninja.com
727-433-9839
Tampa, Florida
Summary
I am a senior technologist with over 28 years of experience in commercial and corporate software design,
development, governance, testing, and architecture. I am a leading industry expert in the field of Decision
Management, Business Rule Management Systems (BRMS), and enterprise architecture.
Over the last 12 years, I have focused mainly as a solution architect within the decision management space as well
as overall enterprise architecture, and I have lead many companies with their adaptation of decision management
and business rule management systems, specifically IBM Operational Decision Manager (ODM/WODM/ILOG).
I have many years of experience as an overall technologist, architect, and decision management expert, as well as a
mentor, trainer, and team leader. I have designed and developed custom decision management training material,
white papers, as well as designed numerous rule governance processes.
Taking a model-driven best practices approach, I lead my customers through their entire decision management
adaptation journey, including designing and implementing their decision management center of excellence (COE).
Professional Experience
Teknovare, March 2013 – Present
Technologist and Architect - Taking a model-driven approach to the analysis, design, implementation, architecture,
testing, and governance of decision management (rules) systems, I have led several rules-related project teams as
either the architect, analyst, or developer, and in most cases all of those roles at once. I have participated in the
development of rules-based modeling tools, methodologies, and educational material specific to the building of a
decision management (rules) practice, and leverage these tools throughout my engagements. I pioneered the use of
object caching and rule technologies together, in order to provide a new integration use case for decision
management in the enterprise. Major accomplishments include (but not limited to):
•
Lead Solutions Architect – Major Oil & Gas Company
Lead a team in the design & development of a rule-based competency management solution, which included my leadership and technical
participation of the following components:
o UML-based domain, use case, governance, and architectural models
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Rule-based governance process
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o
o
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Rule-based decision services for managing operational and personal competency, along with rules to determine how to rank
candidates for each potential operational situation.
Rule-based unit test framework
Numerous J2EE components, such as database persistence, caching, logging, service interfaces, etc.
Various .NET client applications as well as service integration
Lead Solutions Architect – Major Retail Pharmacy Company
Lead a team in the design & development of a rule-based retail pharmacy and central utility solution, which included my leadership and technical
participation of the following components:
o UML-based domain, use case, governance, and architectural models
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Rule-based governance process
Rule-based decision services for managing pharmacist script processing regulations, master prescriber credentials, and electronic
prescriptions
o CPLEX-based optimization models for managing and balancing the pharmacist task queues
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Rule-based unit test framework
Numerous J2EE components, such as database persistence, caching, logging, service interfaces, etc.
Various .NET client applications as well as service integration
IBM Software Services for WebSphere – February 2009 – March 2013
Lead Solution Architect, WebSphere Software Group, Lab Services - Upon the merger of ILOG and IBM, I became a
leader within the IBM Lab Services division of the WebSphere Product Group. While at IBM I worked primarily as a
solutions architect, providing leadership and expertise in the area of J2EE and .NET enterprise architecture, decision
management, and business rules management systems (BRMS). Some of my responsibilities included, but not
limited to, providing architectural leadership on enterprise level system transitions and implementation. I provided
leadership in the development of many decision management-based processes, methodologies, and product design
features, as well as lead the effort in developing mentoring and training for internal resources, both company and
customer wide. Assisted in the design and development of several reusable BRMS-related artifacts, tools, and
frameworks. Lead the project teams of many large enterprise projects, in the fields of insurance, medical,
transportation, and entertainment industries. Assisted in the migration of the original ILOG JRules and Rules for .NET
products into what is now known as IBM Operational Decision Manager (ODM/WODM). Major accomplishments
include, but not limited to:
•
Lead Solutions Architect – Major Cruise Line Company
Lead a team in the design & development of a rule-based promotions management solution, which included my leadership and technical
participation of the following components:
o UML-based domain, use case, governance, and architectural models
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o
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o
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Rule-based governance process
Rule-based decision services for determining what promotions to apply and how promotions can be combined.
Rule-based unit test framework
JAX-WS web services
Java-based persistence layer via JDBC and dbUtils
o Java-based object caching layer via JCS
•
Lead Solutions Architect – Major Credit Card Company
Lead a team in the design & development of a rule-based credit card fraud solution, which included my leadership and technical participation of
the following components:
o UML-based domain, use case, governance, and architectural models
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o
o
o
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Rule-based governance process
Rule-based decision services for determining and applying credit card fraud patterns
Rule-based unit test framework
Numerous J2EE components, such as database persistence, caching, logging, service interfaces, etc.
Various .NET client applications as well as service integration
•
Lead Solutions Architect – Major Insurance Company
Lead a team in the design & development of a rule-based claims processing solution, which included my leadership and technical participation of
the following components:
o UML-based domain, use case, governance, and architectural models
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o
o
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Rule-based governance process
Rule-based decision services for automatic claims adjudication
Rule-based unit test framework
Numerous J2EE components, such as database persistence, caching, logging, service interfaces, etc.
Various .NET client applications as well as service integration
ILOG – December 2003 – March 2009
Lead Solution Architect – Architect and developer in the area of business rules management systems with the ILOG
JRules product, was a contributing member of many large, enterprise wide BRMS implementations. Eventually lead
the professional services team in the area of solution architecture, as well as assisting with the design and the
development of a new rules product for the .NET platform (ILOG Rules for .NET). Worked not only as a consultant,
but a trainer as well, assisting in the development of the .NET platform training material as well as the internal
delivery methodology, based on the Rational Unified Process. Major accomplishments include, but not limited to:
•
Lead Solutions Architect – Major Parcel Delivery Company
Lead a team in the design & development of a rule-based package validation and pricing solution, which included my leadership and technical
participation of the following components:
o UML-based domain, use case, governance, and architectural models
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Rule-based governance process
Rule-based decision services for determining if shipments were packaged correctly, in accordance to regulations, and the best way to
price the shipment.
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Rule-based unit test framework
o .NET application design, implementation, and integration
•
Lead Solutions Architect – Two Separate Major Train Companies
Lead two different teams at different companies in the design & development of a rule-based alerting system for train component monitoring
solution, which included my leadership and technical participation of the following components:
o UML-based domain, use case, governance, and architectural models
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Rule-based governance process
Rule-based decision services for determining alert patterns for train components, such as wheel detectors, which created both rultime
and maintenance alerts.
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Rule-based unit test framework
Medical Systems Software Company – February 2002 – December 2003
Chief Architect – Lead the architecture, design, and development team for an electronic medical record software
product, in a startup mode. I leveraged J2EE and decision management technologies, including open source
application servers (JBoss), as the application platform. The company went bankrupt during development of the
product.
Wall Data – June 1996 – February 2002
Technologist – Responsible for the product architecture of the RUMBA, Arpeggio, and Salsa product lines, to include
the refactoring of the existing monolithic product line to one that leverages Microsoft ActiveX technologies.
Microsoft – February 1994 – June 1996
Architect – Provided architectural consulting on all areas of Microsoft products, including design and implementation
of several enterprise systems for major accounts.
Lotus cc:Mail – March 1993 – February 1994
Principle Software Engineer – Software development of commercial software products, namely cc:Mail for DOS and
for Windows.
Borland International – October 1991 – March 1993
Senior Software Engineer – Software development of commercial software products, namely Borland C++, Turbo
C++, Borland Pascal, and Turbo Pascal’s integrated development environment (IDE). Also participated in the
development of the application framework OWL (Object Windows Library).
Peter Norton Group – February 1986 – October 1991
Software Engineer – Software development of commercial software products, namely Norton Utilities, Norton
Desktop for DOS and Windows, and Norton Commander.
Key Courses and Training
I have delivered, taken, and created several key courses and certifications, related to decision management as well
as .NET and J2EE.
• Certifications
o ILOG JRules Developer
o ILOG Rules for .NET Developer
o ILOG JRules Business Analyst
o ODM Developer
o ODM Business Analyst
o Lombardi BPM Developer
o WebSphere Application Server Administrator
o Oracle Certified Master, J2EE Enterprise Architect
• Course Trainer
o ILOG JRules Developer
o ILOG Rules for .NET Developer
o ILOG JRules Business Analyst
o ODM Developer
o ODM Business Analyst
o ODM Administration
• Course Content Creator
o ILOG Rules for .NET Developer
o IBM ODM Developer
o IBM ODM Business Analyst
Skills, Languages, and Products
I have extensive experience with the following languages and products:
• Languages – UML, IRL, Java, C#, J#, C++, C, Smalltalk, WSDL, JAXB, JAXWS, XML, XSD, JSON, JDBC
• Frameworks – Apache Commons, JCS, JPA, Hibernate, Maven, Ant
• Products – ILOG JRules, ILOG Rules for .NET, IBM WODM, IBM ODM, Red Hat BRMS, IBM BPM, Rational
Software Architect, Enterprise Architect, Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, Informix
• Application Servers – WebSphere, WebLogic, JBoss, Catalina, NetBeans