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The Newest Idea in Business Rules:  Rules Normalize!

by Ronald G. Ross

This column originally appeared in the March/April 1996 issue of the Data Base Newsletter.

The foundation for formal thinking about integrity in database designs, of course, is normalization from relational theory.  Normalization provides sound prescriptions -- very practical ones -- to evaluate whether a database design for persistent data is a good one with respect to integrity (correctness).  These prescriptions are represented by the normal forms (1NF, 2NF, 3NF, etc.).

Rules also directly address integrity; that is, which database states are permitted, and which are not, based on business rules.  The question naturally arises:  Is there a connection between rules and normalization?

The emerging answer is yes.  The connection is a fundamental one -- and very exciting!  I believe this discovery is among the most significant of the newly emerging field of business rules.  (More on that in a moment.) 
To understand the connection, consider these two observations about rules.

  • First, rules are, or at least have, data.  This data includes (but is not limited to) the truth value of the rules.  Although this is not regular 'business' data, it is data nonetheless.

  • Second, this data is persistent.  It must last longer than individual frames of processing (transactions) so that the rules can be tested across applications.

In other words, rules involve data, and that data persists.  This is exactly where normalization takes up for regular business data.  The implication is that normalization can be applied directly to rules -- in other words, that rules normalize.  (Actually, that is not exactly the right way to say it.  Relational experts say that tables normalize.  Unfortunately, saying "rules have values that can be considered along with the other values of a table when normalized" does not have quite the same ring to it.)

The profound insight that rules normalize seems obvious once you think about it.  How could it be any other way?  There are at least two important implications, as follows.

  • It can be exploited directly in a syntax for modeling rules.  In the graphic syntax I have devised, the type in the data model to which a rule normalizes is shown explicitly -- this is a basic organizing principle.

  • It can provide an indisputable test -- one that is not ad hoc or based on aesthetics -- for deciding when an information system design that addresses rules is a good one.  In other words, it tells you explicitly where the rules should go.

If you have followed object orientation (OO) in recent years, especially OO approaches to analysis and design, you may have sensed that something like this has been sorely missed.  (This is especially true about the responsibility-driven camp.)  It is a source of great confusion -- and, I believe, one very good reason you why you should be considering a business rule approach.


standard citation for this article:
Ronald G. Ross, "The Newest Idea in Business Rules: Rules Normalize!" Data Base Newsletter, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1996), URL:  http://www.BRCommunity.com/a1996/a335.html

November/December 1999
The Fin de Siegle Legacy Mindset
By Ronald G. Ross

September/October 1999
Analysis Paralysis Just May Save Your Life
By Ronald G. Ross

July/August 1999
If We Had Started Coding Already...
By Ronald G. Ross

May/June 1999
Your Core Business Processes Need a Rule Engine
By Ronald G. Ross

January/February 1999
Four Things Wrong with the Way We Develop Information Systems
By Ronald G. Ross

November/December 1998
Push-Type Data Hub vs. Pull-Type Data Warehouse
By Ronald G. Ross

September/October 1998
What Knowledge Management is About (And What it Has To Do With Business Rules)
By Ronald G. Ross

May/June 1998
The Next Great Leap Forward ~ About the Changes You See
By Ronald G. Ross

March/April 1998
Business Rules as Customer Interface
By Ronald G. Ross

January/February 1998
Components and Business Rules: Do They Connect?
By Ronald G. Ross

November/December 1997
The Policy Charter: A Small-Sized Picture of the Big Picture
By Ronald G. Ross

September/October 1997

Implementing Application Packages: Is There A Better Way?

By Ronald G. Ross


July/August 1997

'Why' is Why Business Rule Methodology is Different

By Ronald G. Ross


May/June 1997

Never-ending On-the-Job Training

By Ronald G. Ross


September/October 1996

Re-Usability in the Business Rule Approach

By Ronald G. Ross


March/April 1996

The Newest Idea In Business Rules: Rules Normalize!

By Ronald G. Ross


January/February 1996

An Open Letter to DBMS Vendors: We Need Active Database Systems

By Ronald G. Ross


May/June 1995

The Greatest Irony Of The Information Age: Business Rules

By Ronald G. Ross


November/December 1995

Business Rules: Knowledge For Knowledge Workers

By Ronald G. Ross


March/April 1994

"Play Ball!"

By Ronald G. Ross


November/December 1999 & January/February 2000

Enterprise Architecture: Issues, Ingibitors, and Incentives

By John A. Zachman


July/August & September/October 1999

Packages Don't Let You Off The Hook

By John A. Zachman


November/December 1988

The History Of Steam-Powered Ships

By Ronald G. Ross


January/February & March/April 1999

Life Is a Series of Trade-Offs and Change Is Accelerating!

By John A. Zachman


January/February 1994

"Business Rules, At What Cost?"

By Ronald G. Ross


November/December 1998

"Yes Virginia, There IS an Enterprise Architecture"

By John A Zachman


May/June 1994

Business Rules:  Birth of a Movement

By Ronald G. Ross


January/February 2000

Business Systems And Information Support Systems 

By John Hall


July/August 1998

Enterprise Architecture:  Looking Back and Looking Ahead

By John A. Zachman


July/August 1991

Why I Like the Zachman Framework Architecture"

By Ronald G. Ross


January/February 1998

The Framework for Enterprise Architecture (The 'Zachman Framework') and the Search for the Owner's View of Business Rules

By John A. Zachman


March/April 1997

Business Process Re-Engineering

By Ronald G. Ross

 

 

 about . . .

 RONALD G. ROSS

Ronald G. Ross is Principal and Co-Founder of Business Rule Solutions, LLC, where he actively develops and applies the IPSpeak methodology including RuleSpeak®, DecisionSpeak and TableSpeak.

Ron is recognized internationally as the "father of business rules." He is the author of ten professional books including the groundbreaking first book on business rules The Business Rule Book in 1994. His newest are:

Ron serves as Executive Editor of BRCommunity.com and its flagship publication, Business Rules Journal. He is a sought-after speaker at conferences world-wide. More than 50,000 people have heard him speak; many more have attended his seminars and read his books.

Ron has served as Chair of the annual International Business Rules & Decisions Forum conference since 1997., now part of the Building Business Capability (BBC) conference. He was a charter member of the Business Rules Group (BRG) in the 1980s, and an editor of its Business Motivation Model (BMM) standard and the Business Rules Manifesto. He is active in OMG standards development, with core involvement in SBVR.

Ron holds a BA from Rice University and an MS in information science from Illinois Institute of Technology. For more information about Mr. Ross, visit www.RonRoss.info, which hosts his blog. Tweets: @Ronald_G_Ross

 

 





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