Go by the Rules
I have been reading a lot about Business Rules lately mostly by following blog of practitioners. Though I have been documenting rules during the analysis in someway or the other but not in the way recommended or the way 'Business Rules' should be treated and written.The major learning has been separating Rules from Business Process/Use Cases. Often they got mixed up in the Business Process Model or are hidden in the use cases(I could have saved a lot of pain if I separated rules from the diagrams).
For folks who are getting into the profession I would recommend treating and learning Business Rules as par with Use Cases, Process Modelling or any other technique. For Starters I would suggest the following text on the internet:
1. The Business Rule Manifesto- Clearly specifies the importance of Business Rules and various principle of rule independence.
2. RuleSpeak- Is a set of guidelines for expressing rules in concise and business friendly fashion. This site also two very good documents which are freely available for Download, they are
Basic RuleSpeak Do's and Don't and RuleSpeak Sentence Form.
3. Introduction to Business Rules By Scott Ambler -Provides a template for detailing Business Rules.
4. 'KISS' Process Modelling Technique by Kathy Long - Kathy gives a beautiful example on Separating Business rules from Business Process.
5. Business Rules Hidden In Use Cases by Scott Sehlhorst -A very interesting article on separating rules from requirements and how the rules are commonly hidden in the use cases.
Let me know if you come accoss more such articles, I would love to add them to the list :)
