News earlier this week that IBM is buying French business rules player Ilog for $340m has once again shone a spotlight on this relative backwater of enterprise technology. While business process management systems have managed to move into the mainstream, some of the business rules companies have remained in something of a niche. But what are the options in open source business rules management systems, and why would you want one?

A developers experience of working with ILOG JRules for two years. The good things he found, the problems he encountered and his general views on rule engines.