Scoring / rating engines - advice and examples?

Question

I need to create a flexible (and preferably dynamic) scoring engine, much like a credit scoring or premium calculating system. Does anyone with practical experience of creating

Answer 1

Generally speaking, people who go about developing a scoring system have a good idea about how they might do the scoring by hand, and the start of the process is to code up the naive algorithm suggested by their experience. Sometimes, people then get fancy, using concepts such as genetic algorithms. Thinking about things like FICO scoring, another part of the work tends to be the collection of data, both transactional data (purchase patterns, earning patterns) and 'result' data (defaults or other issues with credit). By analyzing patterns and results, the scoring tools develop a score for users, which is then used as a predictor of future behaviour (is this person with a FICO score of x likely to cause me problems if I extend them credit?).

I don't think there is a general solution for these analyses. Someone has to have an insight into how to do the analysis and correlation, and can then use computers to define and refine the insight.