Razer Technology Solutions, Inc.

332 Gordon Drive
Exton, PA 19341
610-524-7073

Blueprints: Digital Business Rules Keep Your Systems Flexible

Does your IT and Software support a business which has constantly changing rules
and guidelines? Are your users always fine tuning the business rules on which the
software is based? Business Rules are the very heart of what drives business software
applications. They form the baseline requirements, the workflow, the reporting
requirements, our calculations, and even our backup and recovery strategy.

Business defines what IT and the Software is supposed to do, right? So why have so
few companies invested in automating the process of changing business rules? In
business such as Insurance, Finance, E-Commerce, Accounting, Pharmaceutical, Taxation
and Banking, rules change frequently. In some cases, business are changing to keep up
with the market, in others, business is working to comply with regulations.

In some cases, we may be able to justify the expense and development associated with
an enterprise rules engine like the one from USoft. However, the competitive market often
drives us to find quicker, less expensive solutions. No matter, our only constant in software
management is change.

What follows is a suggested data model for digitizing basic business rules into a relational
database. Our model assumes that business rules are able to be broken out at a very
granular level and can be combined into compound and exclusive conditions. We also
assume that having the business rules in a digitized format will enable the business to
adapt to and manage change more effectively.

Of course if your business doesn't respond well to change, then none of this will help.

This is the first in a four part series.

1. Explanation and Presentation of the Model and Examples of Data
2. Querying the data structures and Evaluating the Rules with SQL
3. Using Java to Process the Rules
4. A Case Study in Business Rules Management