6. A system comprising: a processor coupled to a bus; at least one memory device coupled to the bus; one or more databases holding a rule base of rules and a profile database of profiles including rule classification profiles to classify rules of the rule base; and rule base development and management software held in the at least one memory device and executable by the processor to: receive a rule query against the rule base; execute the rule query to identify rules in the rule base as a function of the rule classification profiles, at least one rule classification profile including one of an executable code segment or a call to an external process which when executed yields classification data that classifies one or more rules associated with the respective rule classification profile; and provide a result set of identified rules.
10. The system of claim 6 , wherein the rule base development and management software held in the at least one memory device is further executable by the processor to: receive a selection of one or more identifiers of rules in the rule base; receive a rule profile definition, the rule profile definition including metadata, the metadata including one of an executable code segment or a call to an external process which when processed, yields classification data that classifies the rules in the rule base of the one or more selected rule identifiers; and store the rule profile definition with an association to the one or more selected rule identifiers of rules in the rule base, the profile definition providing searchable rule classification data for rules of the associated rule identifiers.