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 * [Technical roadmap](topics/technical-roadmap.md)
 * [Dummy data for local development or testing](topics/dummy-data.md)
 * [Open Source dependencies](topics/dependencies.md)
+* [Routing expressions](topics/routing-rules.md)
diff --git a/docs/topics/routing-rules.md b/docs/topics/routing-rules.md
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+# Routing rules
+The backend part of the Signalen application allows users to set up rules
+that will take nuisance complaints and assign to them a department
+and/or user. These rules are called "routing expressions" in Signalen and they
+can be edited in the Django admin. These expressions allow reasoning based on
+nuisance complaint location, status, and category.
+
+The routing expressions will be invoked at the creation of a nuisance complaint
+and if the correct feature flag is set, also on change of location and category.
+
+
+## Running routing rules on creation of a nuisance complaint
+When a complaint is created using the Signalen frontend, machine learning will
+assign it a probable main and sub category and based on that category the
+reporter will be shown some extra questions. The main and sub category may not
+be enough information to determine who or which department should start work on
+the complaint. 
+
+To fill this gap routing expressions were added to Signalen, these are used to
+assign nuisance complainta to the correct department and possibly user. Routing
+rules can take into account not just the main and sub catagories, but also the
+location and time of the reported nuisance. Rules are given an priority and
+executed  one-by-one until a routing expression matches. At that time the
+nuisance complaint is assigned and the matching stops.
+
+
+## Running routing rules on updates to a nuisance complaint
+Running the routing expressions only at the creation may lead to a assigned user
+or department being inappropriate after updates to the complaint. It is possible
+to run the routing expressions again after certain updates to the nuisance
+complaint. The Signalen installation must be configured with the feature flag
+`DSL_RUN_ROUTING_EXPRESSIONS_ON_UPDATES` set to True. With that feature flag
+activated Signalen will re-evaluate the routing expressions and possibly
+re-assign the nuisance complaint on updates.
+
+Because routing expressions act on only a subset of nuisance complaint
+properties, only updates to those properties will cause a re-evaluation of the
+routing expressions. In practice this means that updates to location and
+category will trigger re-evaluation. As before, the routing expressions run
+one-by-one and in the same order as before, stopping at the first match.
+
+Caveat: because all rules are evaluated in order, it may be that, for instance,
+a location update triggers a rule re-evaluation but the matching rule may not
+use the location at all (see example in the next section). This, quite possibly,
+surprising behavior is not apparent on creation of a nuisance complaint because
+at that time all of the complaint's properties are set at once.
+
+The only way that the order of evaluation can be changed is by adding or
+removing rules, or by setting their `order` property. Routing expressions can
+only be managed through the Django Admin pages. On those pages it is possible
+for application administrators to create, delete, or edit routing expressions
+including changing the `order` property.
+
+
+## Example of possible surprising behavior
+Take the situation where we have two routing expressions. On that
+assigns a complaint to department "Stadsdeelwerken" with the expression
+```
+sub == "Zwerf Aval"
+```
+and one that assign a complaint to "j.janssen@example.com" of
+"CEN (Stadsdeel Centrum)" with the expression:
+```
+location in area."stadsdeel"."centrum"
+```
+Further assume that the sub category matching rule is always evaluated first
+because of the way the rules are configured.
+
+Given a complaint in sub category "Zwerf Afval" where a location update puts it
+in borough (stadsdeel) Centrum, the location rule will not match because it is
+still superseded by sub category rule. The nuisance complaint will still be
+assigned to "Stadsdeelwerken" based on its sub category. That the trigger to
+re-evaluate was a location update, changes nothing to that fact.
+
+
+## Glossary
+
+| English                   | Dutch                 | In code  |
+| ------------------------- | --------------------- | -------- |
+| nuisance complaint        | melding               | signal   |
+| reporter                  | melder                | reporter |
+| application administrator | functioneel beheerder |          |
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