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Final Word (For Now) on the Black Swans and Strategy Discussion: Do Business Rules Derive from a Business’s Goals and Objectives?

by Ronald G. Ross on July 16, 2012

Question: Do business rules derive from strategy?
Answer: In our experience only about 2-3% of a company’s business rules derive directly from strategy (goals and objectives). Needless to say, those are a critical 2-3%. The rest of a company’s business rules concerning behavior derive from regulations, contracts, agreements, business policies, warranties, deals, certifications, etc. Let’s call [...]

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Black Swans: Two Issues of Consequence that Taleb Doesn’t or Cannot Answer

by Ronald G. Ross on July 3, 2012

Guest Post by Kenneth Watman
Deputy Director, Systems Analysis
Office of Director of National Intelligence
Washington D.C.
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Like so many people, I was fascinated and exasperated by Taleb’s book. But, when the book is summed up, I do not believe Taleb has defined “Black Swan” as anything special or remarkable.
Near as I can tell, a “Black Swan” is [...]

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Black Swans, Business Rules, and Strategy – Re-Clarified

by Ronald G. Ross on July 2, 2012

Let me re-clarify what I am, and am not, saying about business rules and black swans. There’s been some confusion. I did not say that preparing for or responding to black swans is all about business rules. (I’m not that naive!)
I did say, however, that business rules “… build robustness to negative [black swans] that [...]

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Black Swans, Business Rules, and Strategy – Continued

by Ronald G. Ross on June 28, 2012

I’ve gotten a lot of excellent response to yesterday’s post on black swans. Let me summarize yesterday’s points and continue the line of thought.
a. Business rules cannot be used to help protect against unforeseeable events that have not already happened.

b. Business analysts can assess unforeseeable events (black swans) and develop business rules to cater [...]

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Black Swans, Business Rules, and Strategy: What Every Business Analyst Needs to Know

by Ronald G. Ross on June 27, 2012

We preach (and practice) strategy as a key element of business analysis. A key element of strategy is identifying significant business risks. We address such risks in the deliverable we call a Policy Charter. See http://www.brcommunity.com/BBSGlossary.pdf (page 39). Appropriate business policies are developed to protect the company.
Sometimes we hear the argument that it’s impossible [...]

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Business Policies vs. Business Rules: What’s the Big Difference Anyway?

by Ronald G. Ross on June 13, 2012

The relevant standard on the question is OMG’s Business Motivation Model (BMM). I prefer the English (not UML) version: http://www.businessrulesgroup.org/second_paper/BRG-BMM.pdf.
Business policies and business rules are both ‘elements of guidance’. The difference is that business policies are not practicable, whereas business rules always are.  A business rule must be ready to deploy to the business, [...]

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Requirements Management and the Business Motivation Model

by Ronald G. Ross on May 25, 2012

Guest post by Cecilia Pearce
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I have just completed the “Business Analysis with Business Rules: From Strategy to Requirements” on-line training session given by Ron Ross and Gladys Lam.[1]
This approach has additional benefits where requirements are concerned. During the session, it became evident that some of the requirements processes defined by BABOK® – Requirements Elicitation, Prioritization [...]

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Understanding Strategy as a Key Business Analysis Tool: It’s Not Business Process!

by Ronald G. Ross on May 8, 2012

John Matthias recently wrote this about our new book, Building Business Solutions: Business Analysis with Business Rules[1]:
“I especially liked the discussion about the mission and goals. I still see business process analysis in organizations I visit where the goals are not articulated well, and the results are not useful. (I’ve done it myself.) It’s [...]

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Are You Struggling with Requirements? Project Off-Track?

by Ronald G. Ross on April 18, 2012

Guest Post by Senior Consultant to Large Organization
I am struggling on a project right now where the requirements were never properly collected in the beginning. So we’re now going back to our requirements to try and sort out what the business really wants.  
As this process of validating the original requirements started, I had just [...]

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A Buzzword Like ‘Decision’ that Covers Everything May Soon Cover Nothing

by Ronald G. Ross on February 7, 2012

One thing that concerns me about ‘decision’ or ‘decision management’ is that everything potentially becomes a decision. Software vendors love it when complex problems can be reduced to a single buzzword. Engineers of true business solutions should hate it.
I’m sure I’ll be accused of negativism, so for the record, let me say that top down [...]

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