Business rules approach |
==Definition==
Business rules are abstractions of the policies and practices of a business organization. The business rules approach is a development methodology where rules are in a form that is used by, but not embedded in business process management systems.
The Business Rules Approach formalizes an enterprises critical business rules in a language the manager and technologist understand. Business rules create an unambiguous statement of what a business does with information to decide a proposition. The formal specification becomes information for process and rules engines to run.
==Advantages==
The adoption of business rules adds another tier to systems that automate business processes. Compared to traditional systems, this approach has the following major advantages,
Business rules represent a natural step in the application of computer technology aimed at enhancing producticity in the workplace. Automated business processes that have business logic embedded inside often take substantial time to change, and such changes can be prone to errors. And in a world where the life cycle of business models has greatly shortened, it has become increasingly critical to be able to adapt to changes in external environments promptly. These needs are addressed by a business rules approach.
Through the use of business rules, the agility of the business is enhanced. And the manageability of business processes also increases as rules becomes more accessible.
==Technical Details==
The programs designed specifically to run business rules are called rule engines. More complete systems that support the authoring, deployment and management of business rules are called business rules management systems (BRMS s).
Many commercial rule engines provide the Rete algorithm, or a proprietary Algorithm that embodies many of the principles of Rete. However there are other execution algorithms such as the sequential algorithm (ILOG and Blaze terminology), algorithms for evaluating decision tables/trees as well as algorithms tuned for hierarchical XML. The Rete algorithm is a stateful pattern matching algorithm designed to minimze the evaluation of repetitive tests across many objects/attributes and many rules. There are different fields of usage which are best for Rete-based and non-Rete-based execution algorithms. For simple stateless applications, with minimal sharing of conditions across rules, a non-Rete-based execution algorithm (such as the sequential algorithm) may be preferable. For evaluating decision tables and trees an algorithm that exploits the hierarchical relationships between the rule conditions may perform better than a simple Rete or sequential algorithm tuned for discrete rules.
Business rules can be expressed in a way similar to conventional programming languages or in languages resembling natural ones. In some commercial BRMS s such as ILOG s JRules, Blaze Advisor or Innovations visual rules, rules can also be expressed in decision tables and decision trees. Provided with a suitable interface to design or edit decision tables or trees, it is possible for business users to check or change rules directly, with minimal IT involvement.
When rules are expressed in a way similar to a natural language, it is necessary to first define a vocabulary to be used, which contains words and expressions that correspond to business objects and conditions and operations involving them. To make the rules executable by a rule engine, it is also necessary to implement the operations and conditions in a programming language. With a defined and implemented vocabulary, it is relatively easy to write rules in a BRMS. Changes can also be made quickly as long as they can be expressed in the existing vocabulary. If not, the vocabulary must be expanded accordingly.
Rules can also be modelled, with the business user taking the part of mapping his business logic and IT being responsible for integration of data as well as integration of the generated code into the target application. A good example for a tool providing graphical modelling of business rules is visual rules.
Business rules are also key to the Enterprise Decision Management approach to decision automation.
= Relation to database management =
As argued by Christopher J DATE, business rules translate into data integrity constraints when one thinks in terms of the relational model of database management. Thus, a truly RDBMS could be thought in terms of a declarative programming business rules engine with added data management capability. This is currently implemented in Rel (DBMS) and Alphora Dataphor.
= References =
= External links=
*Idiom Decision Suite : [http://www.idiomsoftware.com Tools for business rules]|
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