Pega Rule delegation

Business rules change more often than code. A discount rate moves, a threshold is raised, a message needs new wording. If every such change needs a developer, a release and a deployment, the business waits. Rule delegation solves this by letting selected users change selected rules directly, without going through the development team.

What delegation is

A delegated rule is an ordinary rule that a developer has marked so that it appears in a list for a specific person or group. Delegated rules show up in the My Rules area for that user or for everyone in a chosen access group. Business users can open and update the rule's main fields, without needing access to the full development environment.

Which rules are good candidates?

Decision tables and decision trees that hold thresholds or rates.
When rules that express simple conditions.
Map values, message texts and other data-like rules that change often.

Avoid delegating anything with complex logic, such as activities or flows.

How to do it

Delegate: a developer opens the rule and marks it as delegated, choosing the user or access group that may edit it. (In older versions this was done from the Favorites toolbar.)
Open: the business user finds the rule under My Rules (or the equivalent list in their portal) and opens it.
Edit and save: they change the values and save it.
Withdraw: a delegation can be removed when it is no longer needed.

Security still applies

Delegation does not bypass access control. The user still needs the right access role and privileges to check the rule out, modify it and check it back in. In a well-run application, delegated rules are also kept in a ruleset that is unlocked for that purpose, with a clear owner.

A worked example

A bank's loan discount is stored in a decision table LoanDiscountRate. The pricing team changes it every quarter. A developer delegates the table to the access group Bank:PricingAnalysts. In the new quarter, an analyst opens the rule from My Rules, changes the discount for the 25-year band from 0.25 to 0.35 percent, and saves. No developer, build or release is involved, and the change is recorded in the rule history.

Tips

Delegate the smallest thing that meets the need.
Keep a review step, for example by a manager, for changes that affect money.
Test delegated rules after each change in a lower environment, and promote them the same way you promote other rules.

Related: Pega decision rules and the Pega Basics label.