In a memorable Newsletter article in the mid 1990s, Michael Stonebraker described SQL as 'intergalatic dataspeak.'  His point was not that SQL is the perfect language, but rather that big advantages accrue for both people and tools when everyone uses the same language.  A standard, even if imperfect, inevitably accelerates progress across a broad front.  It settles basic questions (at least for the time being) so people can get on with "real" work.  Equally important, by offering standard patterns of thought and expression, it becomes an enabler for widespread communication.

I believe that is exactly what's needed at this point in time for business rules.  I don't mean a standard for automating business rules – it's too soon for that, I think.  Rather, I mean templates for thinking about business rules, and for expressing them at the level of interpersonal communication within and across businesses.  Our clients and colleagues also think this is important – so important, in fact, that they have persuaded us to take action.

I am therefore pleased to announce that BRS will be making available (for free) its popular BRS RuleSpeakTM Practitioner Kit on www.BRSolutions.com.  If you are looking for techniques to express your company's business rules in a consistent, well-structured manner, be sure to have a look.

Let me take a moment to describe what the Practitioner Kit involves.  First, the Kit does not introduce an automated language.  Instead, it is aimed at the human level of communication about business rules.  The Kit itself consists of two parts, as follows.

• An easy-to-read set of best practices for expressing business rules.  This set includes dozens of "do's and don'ts," with many examples to illustrate.  These represent lessons learned (often the hard way) in over a decade of actual project work.

• A complete set of sentence templates for the various kinds of rules.  These templates are not arbitrary, but rather are based on a fundamental categorization of rules (also explained in the offering).  Examples are provided for each category.

We are naturally quite excited about RuleSpeakTM -- it's the result of many years of thought and practice by the most knowledgeable and experienced business rule practitioners in the world.  We're not hoping for Stonebraker's intergalatic standards -- just more consistency and better results among us RuleSpeakers.

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