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Advice for Business
Follow
the links below to learn about documenting and managing
business rules, and about designing and architecting rulebases. These topics are for subject matter experts
(SMEs), business rule analysts, rule harvesters,
rulebase architects, and knowledge engineers.
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"An exciting new
technology called Business Rules is
beginning to have a major positive impact on
the IT industry - more precisely, on the way
we develop and maintain computer
applications."
C.J. Date, inventor of
the relational database model that
revolutionized the field of computer science
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Enterprise Rules Architecture
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In case you are new to
business rules, I’d like to go over a
few basic terms and facts about business rules
and
enterprise architecture. Understanding terms and
facts is one of the first steps in the business
rules approach. |
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Business
The purpose of the corporation is
to perform a business function. The function of
most corporations is to make a profit for
shareholders by selling products and or
services. Corporations comply with external
rules, laws, and regulations that specify what
the corporation can, should, must, and must not
do. They calculate and pay tax, and they report
information and file submissions with government
agencies.
Corporations establish missions, goals, and
strategies such as “sell more and increase
profit.” They define internal business rules,
policies, procedures, processes, and flows to
support the strategies while assuring regulatory
and statutory compliance. They put in place
business rules to guide
macro
and micro decision-making and help management
plan, manage and improve the operation.
Corporations open
stores
and branch offices in places and jurisdictions
that they would like to do business in, and
where customers can go to shop, buy, and
transact. They hire employees and educate them
on the goals and processes, and rules of the
corporation. |
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Technology
Corporations design, build, use,
and manage information systems, business
systems, and database systems for managing,
transacting, reporting, decisioning, advising,
and automating business functions. These systems
have a business purpose, function, structure,
behavior, and logic.
All these elements that make up
the corporation can be represented by an
enterprise architecture framework.
Enterprise Architecture
One influential and compelling
concept of enterprise architecture was defined
in the 1970s by
John
Zachman when he described his
Framework for Enterprise Architecture.
The Zachman Framework (click
to see it small, medium, or
large) consists
of descriptive models that describe all the
elements of the corporation and the business
models of the corporation.
The elements of the corporation include
shareholders, employees, and customers (who);
data, information, and systems (what); events,
plans, schedules, and flows (when); locations,
stores, offices, domain names, and networks
(where); processes, programs, and code (how);
and goals, strategies, policies, and business
rules (why).
The business models (i.e. views or perspectives)
of the corporation are contextual scope (planner
view); conceptual business model (owner);
logical system model (designer); technology
model (builder); and detailed specifications
(sub-contractor).
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Business Rules
Business rules integrate and align all the
elements and business models of the corporation.
Enterprise rules architecture ensures that the
functional and structural components of the
business rules required for the corporation to
fulfill its business function will work, change,
and last.
Business
rules management entails the
business
rules approach,
business
rule methodologies,
best
practices, rule harvesting,
rule
modeling, business rule engineering
design objectives, enterprise architecture,
enterprise rules architecture, rulebase
architecture, terms glossaries, semantic
modeling, business
rule engines (BRE) and
business
rules management systems (BRMS).
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