1. A method comprising: receiving, by a network security management device, a request to add a new traffic flow policy rule to a plurality of policy rules managed by the network security management device; automatically determining, by the network security management device, dependencies of the new traffic flow policy rule on one or more of the plurality of policy rules; forming, by the network security management device, an updated set of policy rules by incorporating the new traffic flow policy rule within the plurality of policy rules based on the determined dependencies; automatically optimizing, by the network security management device, the updated set of policy rules by one or more of grouping a first sub-set of policy rules of the updated set of policy rules, reordering a second sub-set of policy rules of the updated set of policy rules, and deleting a third sub-set of policy rules of the updated set of policy rules based on one or more of weights assigned to particular types of traffic, preference settings, priority settings, network traffic characteristics and usage statistics for each policy rule of the updated set of policy rules.