Terms Used throughout this Guide

This appendix provides a glossary of terms used with the Engine.

Activation

Activation refers to:

• Cases

  A case is activated so that a product can be delivered (typically, so that financials can be generated). Only approved cases can be activated.

  See the Cúram Integrated Case Management Guide.

• Evidence

  Evidence is activated so that it can be used during the calculation of assessment determinations for cases.

  See the Cúram Evidence Guide.

Active Determination

A determination which was triggered by an explicit action from a user, for example when a case is activated.

See Active Determination Calculation Requests.

Administrator

A user who administers the application and has rights to change its configuration.

Assessment

The initial determination of eligibility and entitlement that occurs upon case activation.

Assessment Determination

A determination made when a case is initially assessed during case activation or subsequently reassessed due to a change in circumstance. The result of an assessment determination is typically used in the generation of financials on a case).

See Assessment Determinations.

Attained Objective

An objective to which a case is entitled.

See Entitlement.

Attribute Value

The value of an attribute on a CER rule object.

For example, if there is a CER rule object for James Smith, and that rule object has an attribute named firstName, then the attribute value on that rule object will be "James".

See the Cúram Express Rules Reference Manual.

Basic eligibility/entitlement details

A simple technical description of a case's eligibility, objectives and tags.

See Basic Eligibility/entitlement Decision Details.

Bulk Case Reassessment

The reassessment of a large number of cases following a system-wide change in data or configuration.

See Bulk Reassessment.

Case Decision

A record of eligibility/entitlement for a period of time on a case.

See CaseDecision.

Case Lifetime

The length of time that a case lasted or is expected to last, with reference to the case's start and end dates.

See What a Determination Result Contains.

Case Worker

A user responsible for the ongoing management of cases.

CER Data Configurations

The on-screen term for configurations for rule object converters and propagators.

See Understanding Rule Object Converters and Propagators.

CER

Acronym for Cúram Express Rules.

See the Cúram Express Rules Reference Manual.

Configuration

The ability to change a system's behavior by changing settings in the running application rather than using traditional systems development and redeployment techniques.

Converter

See Rule Object Converter.

Correction Set

A set of related evidence records which reflects the history of the system's record of evidence.

Older items in the correction set were (at one time) thought to be true but are now known to have been recorded incorrectly.

Coverage period

A period within a determination of constant eligibility, entitlement and explanation.

See Dividing the Determination into Coverage Periods.

Current Assessment Determination

The most up-to-date assessment determination, which is currently being used to deliver the product (typically, used to calculate the amounts payable under the case).

Custom Entity

A database table added to the application by the customer - not included with the application.

See the Cúram Modeling Reference Guide.

Custom Evidence Type

A type of Dynamic or Non-Dynamic Evidence added to the application by the customer - not included with the application.

See Evidence.

Decision Details

Free-form calculated output which helps explain to a case worker how the eligibility/entitlement results were arrived at.

See Calculating and Displaying Decision Details.

Decision Period

A period within a determination of constant eligibility and entitlement. Stored as a Case Decision.

Deferred Processing

Background processing which occurs outside of main online processing. Requests for deferred processing can be added to a queue.

Dependency Manager

Software included with the application which stores and manages how one value (a Dependent) depends on other values (Precedents). Used to identify Dependents which may be affected by changes to one or more Precedents.

See the Cúram Express Rules Reference Manual.

Dependent

See Dependency Manager.

Determination

The act of calculating a Determination Result.

Determination Result

A record of a case's eligibility, entitlement and explanation, as they vary over the lifetime of the case.

See What a Determination Result Contains.

Display Category

A tab on a determination screens which allows the case worker to choose a category of explanation.

Examples include:

• Summary;
• Household Members;
• Income; and
• Resources.

See Identify the Display Categories.

Dynamic Evidence

Types of Evidence which are created by configuring a running application.

See the Dynamic Evidence Configuration Guide.

Dynamic UIM

Refer to the UIM Reference chapter of the Cúram Web Client Reference Manual for more details.

Eligibility

Whether a product can be delivered.

Typically, whether a case will result in the generation of financial payments or liabilities.

See Eligibility.

Engine

The application's Eligibility and Entitlement Engine.

See Introduction.

Entitlement

The objectives attained on a case. Typically, objectives are financial and are used in the generation of payments or liabilities on a case.

Only eligible periods have entitlement; ineligible periods have no entitlement.

See Objectives.

Explanation

Additional calculated data which helps a case worker understand how a case's eligibility and entitlement were arrived at.

See What a Determination Result Contains.

Expression

A function available in CER for calculating an output value based on input values.

See the Cúram Express Rules Reference Manual.

Financial Schedule

A schedule of payments or liabilities for a nominee.

See Scheduling Financials.

Frequency Pattern

A recurring time interval over which to deliver a product, e.g.:

• Daily;
• Weekly; or
• Monthly.

See Objective Tags.

In-edit evidence

Changes to evidence which have not yet been activated.

See Temporary Access to In-Edit Evidence Changes.

Integrated Case

A type of case used to manage the delivery of products and services to a household or related group of individuals.

An Integrated Case can contain a number of child product delivery cases. Evidence can be captured at either the integrated case level (and thus applies to all product deliveries under the integrated case) and/or the product delivery level (and thus applies to that product delivery only).

See the Cúram Integrated Case Management Guide.

Interface Rule Class

A CER rule class which enforces a data interface between the Engine and custom business rules.

See the following sections:

• C) ProductEligibilityEntitlementRuleSet AbstractCase rule class;

  B) ProductKeyDataRuleSet AbstractCase rule class; and

  B) ProductDecisionDetailsRuleSet AbstractCase rule class;

Key Decision Factor

A named item which has simple events or data changes which can help explain a determination to a case worker.

Examples:

• Person events, such as "Claimant born", "Claimant married", "Claimant died"; and/or
• Data change events such as "Total Annual Income: $10,000", "Total Annual Income: $12,000"

See Calculating and Displaying Key Decision Factors.

Legislation

The legal documents underpinning the requirements for eligibility/entitlement calculations (and other behavior for a product).

See Handling Legislation Change.

Manual Eligibility Check Determination

An active determination manually requested by a case worker to provide an interim determination on a case. The determination may be based on in-edit evidence or active evidence only.

See Manual Check Determinations.

Nominee

A recipient of an attained objective on a case. Typically the nominee is the primary client of the product delivery case but can be any person.

Non-Dynamic Evidence

Types of Evidence which are developed using standard development techniques (and requiring redeployment of the application).

Objective

An item to be delivered on a case, to a particular target. Typically, a type of payment on a case, e.g. an income assistance benefit or a medical allowance benefit.

See Objectives.

Objective Tag

A frequency at which an objective may be delivered, e.g. income assistance benefit weekly, or income assistance benefit daily.

Larger frequencies are typically used for recurring delivery periods; smaller periods are typically used for ramp-up and ramp-down delivery periods.

See Objective Tags.

Open-ended

Open-ended applies to:

• A Case

  An open-ended case has no end date.

• A Determination

  An open-ended determination has no end date and thus its final coverage period applies until further notice.

• A Case Decision

  An open-ended case decision has no end date and its eligibility/entitlement applies until further notice

• A Financial Component

  An open-ended financial component has no end date and will continue to be used to generate instruction line items until further notice.

In practice, each of these items will close at some point in the future, as circumstances change (e.g. when the claimant dies, or a child leaves home, or the claimant finds employment, etc.).

Policy

Procedures and rules specified by an expert department, based on legislation for a product.

Precedent

See Dependency Manager.

Product

A benefit or liability delivered by the organization.

Typically a benefit product will result in payments to clients.

Product Configuration

Configuration affecting a product's behavior, including:

• the splitting of the product's lifetime into product periods;
• the association of business rules for calculating the product's eligibility, entitlement and explanation; and
• the categories of explanation available and the dynamic UIM screens for displaying those explanations.

Product Delivery Case

A type of case used to deliver a product.

Product Period

A period within a product's lifetime that has a single set of business rules for the calculation of eligibility, entitlement and explanation.

See Handling Legislation Change.

Product Structure

A description of the types of objectives available for the product and the frequencies at which they can be delivered.

See Write the Product Structure Rule Classes.

Propagator

See Rule Object Propagator.

Publication

The act of taking pending changes from a sandbox and making those changes part of the running system's configuration.

Applies to:

• CER Rule Sets - see CER Rules used by your Product;
• CER Data Configurations - see Rule Object Data Configurations; and/or
• Products - see Write the Product Periods.

Ramp-up, Recurring, Ramp-down

The initial, ongoing and final part of a periodic delivery respectively. Typically applies to benefit payments.

See Scheduling Financials.

Rate Table

A table of numerical system-wide data that may change over time.

See "Implementing Rate Tables" in the Cúram Integrated Case Management Configuration Guide.

Reactive Determination

A determination automatically made by the Engine in response to data changes.

See Reactive Determination Calculations.

Reassessment

A determination of eligibility and entitlement that occurs after a case is activated, due to a change in circumstances within the case and/or a change to product configuration which may affect its calculations.

Rule Attribute

A named piece of data on a CER Rule Class.

e.g. a Person rule class might have a firstName rule attribute.

See the Cúram Express Rules Reference Manual.

Rule Category

A categorization of a CER rule set to allow for filtering when a user is searching for a rule set.

Rule Class

A defined type of data manipulated by CER rules.

e.g. a rule set might contain a Person rule class.

See the Cúram Express Rules Reference Manual.

Rule Object

An instance of a rule class.

e.g. A Person rule class might have rule object instances for James Smith and Linda Smith.

See the Cúram Express Rules Reference Manual.

Rule Object Converter

Software which makes data available to CER as rule objects. Some types of rule object converters can be configured.

See Understanding Rule Object Converters and Propagators.

Rule Object Propagator

Software which automatically maintains rule objects when application data changes in the application. Some types of rule object propagators can be configured.

See Understanding Rule Object Converters and Propagators.

Rule Set

A collection of rule classes, which may be maintained and published.

Typically all the rule classes in a rule set are geared towards the same purpose.

See the Cúram Express Rules Reference Manual.

RuleDoc

A development tool for creating an HTML document to explain the structure of rule sets.

See the Cúram Express Rules Reference Manual.

Rules

Declarations of business and/or technical logic for performing calculations.

Sandbox

An area where pending changes to the system can be accumulated prior to publication. Sandbox data does not affect calculations which are based off published data.

Examples include:

• Sandbox for CER Rule Sets;
• Sandbox for product configurations;
• Sandbox for CER Data Configurations; and
• Sandbox for in-edit evidence on a case (the Evidence Workspace).

SessionDoc

A development tool for viewing the rule objects manipulated in a CER Session.

See the Cúram Express Rules Reference Manual.

Snapshot Determination

A point-in-time record of a case's eligibility, entitlement and explanation.

See Snapshot Determinations.

Sub-screen

A dynamic UIM screen shown when a case worker expands a row of data on the screen, to "drill down" into further details.

See Sub-screens.

Succession Set

A set of related evidence records which reflects the history of real-world changes in circumstance. Older items in the succession set apply to circumstances which used to be true in the real world but which are no longer true now.

Superseded Assessment Determination

An assessment determination which used to form the basis of the delivery of a product, but has since been replaced by a more up-to-date determination which has taken into account changes in evidence or product-wide configuration.

See Historical Assessment Determinations.

Tag

See Objective Tag.

Target

The participant who has caused an objective to be attained (typically the person in respect of which benefit is paid).

For example, there may be a child benefit objective on a case for each child in the household; each objective will be targeted at a different child (even if, overall, the total amount payable is received by the primary client).

Evidence

Evidence of real-world circumstances which varies over time due to corrections and/or successions.

See the following guides:

• Cúram Evidence Guide;
• Cúram Evidence Generator Business Guide;
• Cúram Evidence Generator Specification;
• Cúram Evidence Generator Modeling Guide;
• Designing Cúram Evidence Solutions;
• Cúram Evidence Developers Guide;
• Cúram Evidence Generator Cookbook; and
• Dynamic Evidence Configuration Guide.

Timeline

A CER data item which varies over time.

See the Cúram Express Rules Reference Manual.