[lmi] Release notes for lmi-20100527T0154Z

[Greg Chicares]

* XML product database

Most illustration systems use special-case logic for different
products: that's easier to program at first, but costlier to
maintain. On the other hand, lmi uses the same code for every
product, and stores all product-specific information in separate
database files. Previously, those files were saved in a binary
format that only lmi could read. Now, they're stored as XML--the
industry standard for data exchange, which humans can read, too.

For example, here's one rounding rule for a particular product:
  <RoundCoiCharge>
    <decimals>2</decimals>
    <style>To nearest</style>
Recently, a systems area needed to know all the rounding rules
for a family of products. This file answered all their questions.
XML is already used to transfer inforce data from admin to
illustrations; now lmi can provide product rules and rates to an
admin system in a form that both humans and machines can read.

The real motivation was to alleviate a key-person dependency.
Maintaining databases in the old format was a black art known to
few. But XML files are just text that anyone can learn to edit.
And anyone can inspect them for correctness, so validating a new
product becomes easier.

An incidental benefit is that it is now easy to find out how one
product differs from another, using available GUI file-comparison
tools that show two files side by side and highlight differences.

Tables of COI rates are still stored in a binary format. They're
generally regarded as proprietary trade secrets, so there's good
reason to clothe them in obscurity.

* M&E charge banded by premium

One annuity's M&E charge is banded by payment amount. No other
product has a load that's quite the same. In the old days, it was
difficult to add new fields to the database, so this was stuffed
into an otherwise unused field for Delaware premium tax. Anyone
who needed to illustrate a case with a custom M&E had to learn
where to look for it.

Now that product databases are written in XML, it's much easier
to add fields--so the Delaware kludge has been removed, and this
premium-banded M&E appears under "Premium-banded charges" in the
GUI product editor, corresponding to these XML fields:
  CurrSepAcctLoadBandedByPrem
  GuarSepAcctLoadBandedByPrem
The GUI product editor is still recommended because it guards
against mistakes. But the customized XML file it produces can be
printed as readable hardcopy documentation--that's easier and
more reliable than keeping handwritten notes.