register-referentie/docs/architecture/adr-0016-diploma-eligibility-dmn.md

ADR-0016: Diploma eligibility is a DMN evaluated inline as a BPMN DMN service task

• Status: Accepted
• Date: 2026-07-17
• Deciders: Respellion engineering
• Relates to: S-13 (#14); proposal #100. Builds on ADR-0009 (external-task worker / Workflow Client), ADR-0014/0015 (the boundary-event and routing constructs on the registratie process).

Context

S-13 adds flow 4: a foreign diploma must get an extra CBGV-advies assessment before beoordeling (PRD §5). The eligibility decision — domestic goes straight to beoordeling, foreign routes through CBGV-advies — needs a home. The Flowable REST app bundles a DMN engine, and the same repository/deployments machinery that deploys registratie.bpmn can deploy a .dmn. §8.2 makes the Workflow Client the only code that talks to Flowable; the PRD frames the workflow as "BPMN + DMN governing the registration workflow" (Flowable as a peer orchestration module).

The issue's wording ("a DMN decision table evaluated by the Domain Service via Workflow Client") suggests the domain reaches into Flowable's DMN API to evaluate the decision and feeds the result back. That is one option; it is not the only one, and it is not the cleanest.

Decision

The diploma-eligibility DMN is deployed to Flowable and evaluated inline by the registratie process as a DMN service task (flowable:type="dmn"); an exclusive gateway routes on its output. The domain's only new job is to carry the diploma origin and pass it into the process as a start variable.

• The decision lives in the workflow. workflows/diploma-eligibility.dmn maps diplomaOrigin → route (Buitenlands ⇒ CBGV_ADVIES, otherwise DIRECT). A DMN service task (flowable:type="dmn", decisionTableReferenceKey=diploma-eligibility) runs it between OpenZaakAanmaken and Beoordelen, and an exclusive gateway sends CBGV_ADVIES through a new CBGVAdvies user task before Beoordelen, DIRECT straight there. (A businessRuleTask would bind Flowable's legacy Drools/KIE implementation, which flowable-rest does not bundle — its parse handler throws NoClassDefFoundError at deploy time; the DMN service task is the supported route.)
• The domain carries the input, not the decision. The Registration aggregate gains a DiplomaOrigin (Binnenlands/Buitenlands); SubmitRegistration passes it to StartRegistrationProcessAsync, which sets it as the diplomaOrigin start variable. The domain never evaluates the DMN and never learns the route — that is the process's concern.
• Deployed like the BPMN. The DMN is version-controlled in workflows/ and deployed to the DMN engine by the same flowable-init step (via dmn-api/dmn-repository/deployments), staged into the fl-bpmn volume alongside the BPMN.

Consequences

Positive

• The eligibility rule is a first-class, inspectable workflow artefact (matching the PRD's BPMN+DMN framing); business users can read/adjust the decision table without touching domain code.
• §8.2 stays clean: the Workflow Client remains the only code talking to Flowable, and the decision runs inside the process the client already started — no domain→Flowable round-trip for a decision.
• The domain change is minimal and additive: one value on the aggregate, one start variable.

Negative / costs

• Deviates from #14's literal "evaluated by the Domain Service via Workflow Client" wording (noted on the issue). The outcome — DMN decides eligibility, foreign diplomas get the CBGV step — is unchanged.
• The DMN and its service-task wiring are validated live (verify-domain drives a foreign registration through CBGV-advies and a domestic one straight to beoordeling, exercising both branches), not in unit tests — consistent with ADR-0009/0014/0015. The domain unit/acceptance tests cover only that the origin is carried into the process.

Alternatives considered

• Domain evaluates the DMN via the Workflow Client (the issue's wording). Rejected: it couples the domain to Flowable for a decision and splits the routing across two places (domain computes, BPMN branches), for no benefit over letting the engine that owns the process own the decision.
• Eligibility rules in domain C#. Rejected: it moves a governable business decision out of the DMN the PRD calls for, and hard-codes what the reference app is meant to demonstrate as data.