Business Rules and Information Systems

Aligning IT with Business Goals

Publisher: Addison-Wesley, 2002, 385 pages

ISBN: 0-201-74391-4

Last modified: July 31, 2021, 12:46 a.m.

Synopsis

Information systems often fail because their requirements are poorly defined. This book shows IT professionals how to specify more precisely and more effectively what their systems need to do. The key lies in the discovery and application of what are called business rules. A business rule is a compact and simple statement that represents some important aspect of a business. By capturing the rules for your business — the logic that governs its operation — you will gain the ability to create systems fully aligned with your business needs.

In this book, Tony Morgan provides a thorough introduction to business rules, as well as a practical framework for integrating them into information systems. He shows you how to identify and express business rules, offers practical strategies for their use, and explains the key elements of logic that underpin their application.

Topics covered include:

Understanding the role of business rules and models in information systems development
Using models to structure and manage business activities, including e-commerce
Defining and discovering business rules
Controlling business rule quality
Fitting business rules into varied technical architectures
Implementing business rules using available technology

Whether you are an analyst, designer, developer, or technical manager, the in-depth information and practical perspective in this valuable resource will guide you in your efforts to build rule-centered information systems that fully support the goals of your organization.

List of Figures
Preface

Why this book
The goals of this book
Who should read this book
How to use this book

Acknowledgments
Part I A New Approach to Information Systems

Chapter 1 The Problem

Section 1.1 What this book is about
Section 1.2 The way we build software
Section 1.3 The vision
Section 1.4 Is this really practical?
Section 1.5 Moving forward
Section 1.6 Where we stand

Chapter 2 Frameworks, Architectures, and Models

Section 2.1 Needful abstractions
Section 2.2 Case study: a sample business architecture
Section 2.3 What does a complete model look like?
Section 2.4 Modeling summary

Part II Capturing Business Rules

Chapter 3 Defining Business Rules

Section 3.1 Rule statements
Section 3.2 Forming rule statements
Section 3.3 References to facts
Section 3.4 Business parameters
Section 3.5 Tips on rule construction
Section 3.6 Case Study: Microsoft Outlook
Section 3.7 Rule description summary

Chapter 4 Discovering Business Rules

Section 4.1 That which we call a rule
Section 4.2 Where rules come from
Section 4.3 Finding rules
Section 4.4 Case study: loan approval
Section 4.5 Rule-discovery summary

Chapter 5 Controlling Rule Quality

Section 5.1 Developing quality rules
Section 5.2 Reviewing rules
Section 5.3 Walkthroughs
Section 5.4 Inspections
Section 5.5 Testing
Section 5.6 Case study: testing the VBB loan-application rules
Section 5.7 Metrics
Section 5.8 Quality summary

Part III Implementing Business Rules

Chapter 6 The Technology Environment

Section 6.1 More about architecture
Section 6.2 A typical reference architecture
Section 6.3 Component architecture
Section 6.4 Transactions
Section 6.5 Server pages and scripting
Section 6.6 State management
Section 6.7 Implications for business rules
Section 6.8 Where rules live
Section 6.9 Summarizing the technology environment

Chapter 7 Realizing Business Rules

Section 7.1 Taking stock
Section 7.2 Distributing rules
Section 7.3 Realizing rules
Section 7.4 System rules
Section 7.5 Implementation summary

Chapter 8 Managing Business Rules and Models

Section 8.1 Life-cycle costs
Section 8.2 Managing evolution
Section 8.3 Deploying rules
Section 8.4 Tools to support rule management
Section 8.5 Rule repository
Section 8.6 Rule management summary

Part IV The Role of Business Rules

Chapter 9 A Wider View

Section 9.1 Marshaling intellectual resources
Section 9.2 Capturing knowledge
Section 9.3 Knowledge summary

Chapter 10 Summing Up

Section 10.1 The purpose of this book
Section 10.2 Models
Section 10.3 Trends
Section 10.4 Business rule characteristics
Section 10.5 Rule populations
Section 10.6 Other properties
Section 10.7 Rule programming
Section 10.8 Advantages of business rules

Appendix A Little Bit of Logic

Section A.1 Business Logic
Section A.2 Propositions
Section A.3 Logical operations
Section A.4 Handling logical values
Section A.5 Final words

Selected Bibliography

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