Business Rules and Rule Specifications
A business rule describes the data in an organization in terms of requirements that the data must satisfy. You define rule specifications that represent the business rule requirements as a software object.
You can build a rule specification that returns the current status of the data with regard to the business rule. You can also build a rule specification that updates the data so that it conforms to the business rule.
Consider the following guidelines when you define a rule specification:
- •A rule specification defines a single requirement for the data set that it analyzes. A rule specification validates or invalidates each record in the data set according to the business requirement.
- •An organization might define simple business rules and complex business rules. If the logic in a business rule is highly complex, split the business rule into single data requirements. Create a rule specification for each requirement.
- •A business rule rarely exists in isolation from other business rules in the organization. Verify that you understand all the business rules in the organization before you define the rule specifications. You might find that some business rules provide the input for other business rules. Build an integrated set of rule specifications for the organization.
- •A rule specification can be reusable. You might want to apply the same data requirements to different data sources. When you create a rule specification, identify similar business rules that might analyze data in the same way.