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Q&A: Simplifying Business Process Models and Achieving Dynamic Business Processes – All By Using Business Rules

by Ronald G. Ross on October 16, 2012

The OMG standard  SBVR[1] distinguishes between two fundamental kinds of business rules[2]:

Definitional rules (including decision rules) are about shaping knowledge (and cannot be violated).
Behavioral rules are about shaping conduct (and can be violated).

Question: Should definitional rules be included in business process models?
Answer: You might have 100s or 1,000s of business rules about determining [...]

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Business Rule Manifesto FAQs Added to BRCommunity.com

by Ronald G. Ross on October 12, 2012

I am pleased to announce that a comprehensive set of authoritative FAQs about the Business Rules Manifesto has been added to BRcommunity.com: http://www.brcommunity.com/brm.php
The Manifesto is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year – and remains as powerful and as vibrant to today’s business challenges as ever. I will be covering a good many of its insights [...]

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Events, Business Rules and Facts: Not the Same!

by Ronald G. Ross on October 1, 2012

In current discussions, I find people are not being careful about the difference between “event” and “business rule”. An event is something that happens. A business rule gives guidance. An event is an event and a business rule is a business rule.
A business rule can produce a fact (‘automatically’) that an event has occurred. [...]

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How Business Rules, Events and Processes Should Relate: Eight Simple Principles

by Ronald G. Ross on September 28, 2012

I’ve written on this subject many times before, but let me summarize my position concisely. By the way, I expect heavy flak on the last point. See what you think.
(1) Business rules should be expressed declaratively based on common business vocabulary.
An implication for business rules: No direct invocation of functions.
(2) No reference whatsoever should [...]

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Your Current Requirements Approach: A Very Big Question Mark

by Ronald G. Ross on June 12, 2012

Each business rule usually produces multiple flash points.  Don’t know what a flash point is? I think you should! See a brief explanation: http://goo.gl/pl9sT.
Why is this insight so important?  The two or more events where any given business rule needs to be evaluated are almost certain to occur within at least two, and possibly many, [...]

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Flash Points: Where Business Rules Meet Events

by Ronald G. Ross on June 10, 2012

Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Business Rules Manifesto[1]
http://www.businessrulesgroup.org/brmanifesto.htm
FAQ #9
Question: What does principle 6.5 of the Manifesto mean?
The relationship between events and rules is generally many-to-many.
Business rules generally apply at various points in time.  Each of the various points in time when a behavioral rule needs to be evaluated represents an operational [...]

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To-Do Items, Checklists and Out-of-Tolerance Business Events … Business Process Problems?

by Ronald G. Ross on May 3, 2012

Does a to-do item constitute a business process? No. Does a checklist constitute a business process? No. Does an out-of tolerance event constitute a business process? No. Analysis of the following case study illustrates.
The take-away: “Process” shouldn’t be force-fit to every aspect of business operations. That kind of ‘Big-P process’ perspective as I frequently [...]

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How Business Processes and Behavioral Rules Relate: The Fundamental Insight of Business Rules

by Ronald G. Ross on February 29, 2012

In football, when a referee throws a flag, the results of the most recent transform (play) are undone. In effect, by enforcing a rule, the referee prevents or negates the new state (yardline and sometimes the down) and enforces some other state. That’s the way behavioral business rules[1] work. Speed through a school zone and [...]

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Where are Your Business Rules … In a Big-P Process Dead Zone?

by Ronald G. Ross on September 6, 2011

On an EA LinkedIn group last week, Nick Malik wrote the following about business rules in Zachman Framework 3.0:
“I’ll bite. If the ‘enterprise ontology’ is similar to the periodic table of elements, then business rules are molecules. They are compositions of elements with specific implications, embedded in event handling logic. Why would you expect to [...]

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Business Rules & Events: Two Questions for Zachman re: 3.0

by Ronald G. Ross on August 29, 2011

The next time I have dinner with John, I have two questions for him. (He knows I always have new questions for him every time I see him, so he’s more or less prepared for it after all these years.) If anyone talks to him sooner, be sure to ask John these two questions … [...]

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