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Business Rule Re-Engineering

by Ronald G. Ross

An exciting new idea is emerging in the industry.   I am not sure whether the idea has its roots in Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR), or in traditional database circles.   More likely, its origin lies at the intersection of the two -- with that small, but potent, new group of professionals now focused on business rules.   I discussed the idea most recently with Wanda Michaels of Kogawa Consulting.

The idea is based on the observation that the dollar-and-cents savings that result from successful BPR projects usually have more to do with rethinking business rules, than with re-doing workflow (i.e., business "process") per se.  Actually, this should not come as a surprise.  Since business rules are more basic to the company than workflow or business "process," the leverage they offer naturally should be greater.

Let me offer an example.  A large retail concern had an existing business rule that all its products should be priced a least one cent less than the competition's.  To support this rule, it ran continuous checks on competitors' product pricing.  This resulted in frequent adjustments, and a never-ending cycle of re-tagging items in stock -- a time-consuming, expensive, and very cumbersome process.

Initially, the company sought to re-engineer the associated workflow.  However, this produced no more than incremental improvements.  Then the company decided to rethink the pricing rule itself.

The company had assumed that it would lose customers on as small as a one-cent price differential.  After some discussion, this assumption was proven wrong.  As a result, the price differential was raised to a higher level.  This decision, in and of itself, reduced the workflow load to a more tolerable level.  (To allow for fast-paced adjustment in the future, they also subsequently established the price differential as an easily-changed parameter for their IS environment.)

I am virtually certain that many, if not most, successful BPR projects tell a similar story.  The obvious question is why not simply do Business Rule Re-Engineering?  This is an idea whose time I believe has come.

In proposing this, let me be clear that I believe workflow still has a role to play.  Stepping through as-is and to-be procedures (or business "processes") with users, if done correctly, remains one of the best techniques to identify and analyze business rules with re-engineering potential.

The difference with Business Rule Re-Engineering is really one of emphasis -- putting business rules at the center of things, rather than on the periphery.  But such "adjustments" often have a way of producing thundering revolutions.  Just think what Copernicus managed by putting the sun at the center of things, rather than leaving it on the periphery.


standard citation for this article:

Ronald G. Ross, "Business Rule Re-Engineering," Data Base Newsletter, Vol. 25, No. 2, (Mar./Apr. 1997), URL:  http://www.BRCommunity.com/a1997/a357.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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