Decision Tree Convergence
A very important feature of VisiRule is that in VisiRule, you can the merge different branches of the tree,. This is know as 'convergence' and helps overcome many of the traditional limitations of decision trees.
VisiRule Advantages over Decision Trees Software
VisiRule charts are not simple decision trees. They are directed acyclic graphs. DAGs offer a highly compact and efficient representation with minimal redundancy. Decision Graphs are far, far more powerful than decision trees as you can merge separate branches. This helps overcome the traditional problem of exponential growth, or combinatorial explosion, which comes from divergence in decision trees. After just a few levels of questions, you can have hundreds of branches to manage. In expert systems, we often have many questions and answers, but just a few outcomes or conclusions. This implies convergence.
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What is convergence?
Whereas standard decision tree construction restricts nodes to having a single parent, VisiRule allows nodes to share multiple parents. This is convergence. Why is this so helpful? Firstly, convergence decreases the number of nodes and, secondly, it reduces the amount of unhelpful duplication across similar branches.
Decision Graphs vs Decision Trees
As mentioned, in real world applications, you often have many questions and paths, BUT ony a handful of actual outcomes. This implies that some paths converge at some point. And this means your decision tree becomes a decision graph. Decision graphs are far more powerful and compact than decision trees. They provide a natural way to represent common logic.
Convergence Allows Easier-to-Manage Models
The ability to merge divergent branches means that the resulting diagram is more compact and easier to manage and maintain.
Executable Decision Tree Software & Flowcharts
Flowcharts have been around for almost 100 years now and provide a well-proven way of presenting process flow using structured diagrams. VisiRule charts can present complex logic in a simple and concise way without the need for programmers.
Many business users are already familiar with cognitive diagrams thanks to tools such as Visio, MindMap, SmartDraw etc. EDraw have an excellent page which explains the process of how to create decision flow charts or decision tree flow charts for decision making. VisiRule builds on this and ensures that decision flow chart diagrams are not just informative, passive pictures, but are active, executable flow chart diagrams; i.e. they generate executable code in the form of expert systems which can be used to build delivered applications and components.