Commentary

Premise & Conclusion

Ronald G. Ross

SBVR Speaks on Rules: Enforcement Levels for Business Rules

Summary: SBVR recognizes two fundamental categories of rules in the real world (not software). One of these categories is behavioral business rules, which are rules that people or organizations can violate. SBVR also recognizes that how strictly you decide to enforce a behavioral business rule is a completely separate question from the guidance the rule gives — and that such an enforcement level can change independently of the rule itself. Although SBVR does not standardize enforcement levels, it does offer important examples, as this extract indicates. The surprising bottom line — guidelines are business rules too! The following material is excerpted from the OMG standard Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR), Version 1.5, p. 118–119.
Ronald G. Ross
Ronald G. Ross Co-Founder & Principal, Business Rule Solutions, LLC , Executive Editor, Business Rules Journal and Co-Chair, Building Business Capability (BBC) Read Author Bio       || Read All Articles by Ronald G. Ross

enforcement level: position in a graded or ordered scale of values that specifies the severity of action imposed in order to put or keep a behavioral business rule in force

An example set of levels of enforcement, based on Business Motivation Model (BMM):[1]

  • strict: strictly enforced — If you violate the rule, you cannot escape the penalty.

  • deferred: deferred enforcement — Strictly enforced, but enforcement may be delayed — e.g., waiting for resource with required skills.

  • pre-authorized: pre-authorized override — Enforced, but exceptions allowed, with prior approval for actors with before-the-fact override authorization.

  • post-justified: post-justified override — If not approved after the fact, you may be subject to sanction or other consequences.

  • override: override with explanation — Comment must be provided when the violation occurs.

  • guideline: guideline — suggested, but not enforced.

References

[1] The Business Motivation Model (BMM): Business Governance in a Volatile World by the Business Rules Group, http://www.brcommunity.com/brg/BRG-BMM.pdf, Original release: 2000 — OMG release: 2007.

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Standard citation for this article:


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Ronald G. Ross, "SBVR Speaks on Rules: Enforcement Levels for Business Rules" Business Rules Journal, Vol. 20, No. 12, (Dec. 2019)
URL: http://www.brcommunity.com/a2019/c016.html

About our Contributor:


Ronald G. Ross
Ronald G. Ross Co-Founder & Principal, Business Rule Solutions, LLC , Executive Editor, Business Rules Journal and Co-Chair, Building Business Capability (BBC)

Ronald G. Ross is Principal and Co-Founder of Business Rule Solutions, LLC, where he actively develops and applies the BRS 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 where he serves as Co-Chair. 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. Find Ron's blog on http://www.brsolutions.com/category/blog/. For more information about Ron visit www.RonRoss.info. Tweets: @Ronald_G_Ross

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