Business Rules as Code

[alexpandel]

Context

Federal eligibility-based public benefits programs create a lot of waste by handing prose policy to states (and others) for them to interpret and build out rules in each state’s eligibility and enrollment system.

The eligibility rules service exemplar demonstrates a method for federal agencies to provide executable eligibility rules for public benefit programs. States send anonymous applicant data to the web service, which evaluates the data against the criteria, and sends an instant response.

The Eligibility APIs 10x went to Phase 4 and the work was carried forward by https://www.snapscreener.com/ - currently maintained outside of gov.

Why we're prioritizing this

The Eligibility API 10x surfaced a lot of learnings about how Rules as Code might be implemented, used, and maintained. We believe there are likely some threads left to follow up with that could be high impact including some vague ideas around:

• Scaling snapscreener to include other programs
• Bringing gov support to snapscreener for longevity + stewardship
• Utilizing rules as code to surface discrepancies in eligibility policy

Relevant references:

• 10x Eligibility APIs Initiative (worked on by @sawtoothwave & @alexsoble)
  • internal TTS Readme
  • public resources
• Resources outside of TTS:
  • Four things you should know about Rules as Code
  • Beeck Center report on Eligibility Rules as Code

Product canvas

https://app.mural.co/t/gsa6/m/gsa6/1640126716707/b9798fa35153c4ffde98c70663852c08b33cb75e