You may prefer to incorporate other stages as part of your systems-development methodology. As Figure 1 illustrates, a business rule can serve as a tangible deliverable that unites the business perspective and systems development. To understand the potential synergy between business rules and business analysis, I sought insight from Jane Conkey. Jane is a business consultant who recently became educated in business rule concepts. Energized by the potential value of business rules, she began to crystallize a preliminary integration of business rules into business analysis.
Most people feel very comfortable with the term business rule .
In fact, most people agree that their businesses operate according to rules. However, not everyone necessarily agrees on what all those rules are in any one business enterprise. Supposedly, each enterprise has experts who formulate or at least know its underlying business rules. Even when such experts exist, they are not always able to articulate business rules spontaneously. An expert may not even be able to articulate business rules relating to a familiar business process.