1. Business Rules, the New Decision Model and Agile
Charles Bozonier, CBAP
Principal Business Analyst, REI
Business Analysis Certificate Instructor
Just a couple of words up about how I am able to be here in the middle of a very busy workweek.. I work for REI and my manager has been very supportive of the development of each of her analysts. I am not pitching anything and have nothing to sell. This is really just an opportunity to share and learn from one BA to another.

2. Learning Objectives Establish a standard business rule method
Leverage business rules with decision modeling
Utilize decision models to support agile development.
Here are the 3 key learning objectives of this discussion

3. Do-It-Yourself Rule Practice
Rule Structure
Define Rule
Relationships
Collect
Refine
Review
I don’t have a catchy acronym for this cycle but it contains what I needed in order to get started.
Structure – a lot of different opinions are out there about how rules should be written – I decided pick one that is clearly defined and easily understood
Relationships – We know we are going to want rules in a database. This means we are going to have to think about the relationship of rules in order to understand what data about the rule we need to gather when do our collection work.
Collecting rules – Although business rules are above the businesses processes and activities, the rules are manifested within the processes. Having process models of the current state is essential to collecting rules as an informed observer.
Refine – once the rules are collected they must be refined in the presence of the rule owner
Review – Business rules that are of very good quality are ready for review and approval.

4. Resources $40.46 on Amazon $44.40 on Amazon
Here are the two texts we used. Dr. Tony Morgan’s excellent text book is a model of how to write a book that enables professionals like ourselves to just do the work. It is prescriptive in nature.
Barbara von Halle and Larry Goldberg’s text is just about the best thing since their last five books – We are so fortunate in this profession to have such amazing texts to work from.
I also use both of these texts in the course I’ll be teaching next Spring.
$40.46 on Amazon
$44.40 on Amazon

5. You can do this
Solid foundational structure – down to the sentence structure of the individual rule
We are building an asset that will:
Endure for years
Enable agile development
There is an optimal way to work
Tony Morgan’s book is just a rock solid, complete and rationale revelation to me. A book like this is like finding a real treasure.

6. What Rules Will We Target?
Focus on highest value
Focus on rules buried in system logic

7. How Will We Capture Rules?
Current State Review
Rules captured offline in declarative statements
Confirmed and refined with business present
Reviewed in final form at the user level
Declarative Structure - The 4 Rule Types
Basic
List
Enumerative
Quantitative

8. How Will We Write the Rules?
Basic constraint pattern:
Most business rules will fit in this basic pattern:
<determiner> <subject> (must | should) [ not ] <characteristic> [(if | unless) <fact>].
Example of basic pattern:
A customer must provide the Card Identification number of the credit card used when purchasing online.

9. Where Will We Store the Rules?
Appropriately accessible by defined roles
Readily shared with the enterprise
Readily updated by Business Analysts
Relational structure is supported

10. Who Will Steward the Rules?
Designated individuals who understand the rule structure, and can be held responsible for their quality – Typically supported by the BA in alignment with the business owner’s designates.

11. When are rules collected?
In the order of the related processes criticality or value
High value rules first
High volume or high risk processes rank over lower volume or lower risk processes.

12. Why Model Decisions?
Rules are individual statements. However, rules are applied in combination with other rules
Rules may be organized in families –
Rule families are best understood when modeled
These combinations are referred to as business logic

13. Five Characteristics of the Decision Model
Defines the business logic asset
Simple structure, declarative nature and optimal integrity
Easily implemented in technology
Neither language nor a grammar – It is a model
Effectively manage business logic and rules not as lists referenced in a model but in a model of their own.

14. Decision Modeling = Agile
Business people readily engaged
Decision models are pre-work
Other models are simplified
Decision models are reusable
Test scripts can be developed sooner
Better business logic quality means less errors

15. Demonstration Time!
Let’s capture some business rules, model a decision, write an agile story and model a decision in the time we have left.

16. The Business Rules
An online customer is only sent business service information messages to their mobile device.
“Business Service Information” is defined as communications needed to inform a customer about the status of orders, product recalls and availability of backordered items.
An online customer without a mobile device must notified via about order status.

17. The Decision Model Mobile device messaging rule family Condition
Conclusion
Business Service Information
Mobile Contact Number Is
Yes
Send message to mobile device No
Do not send message to mobile device
Send message

18. User Story
I am a customer and I want a message to be sent to my mobile device when my order is available for pick up so that I will be able to pick it up when I am on the go.

19. Mobile device messaging
The Decision Model
Conclusion
Condition
Business Decision
Mobile device messaging
Send message to mobile device
Business Service Information is YES
Mobile Contact Number is YES

20. STEP Business Decision Methodology
Separate the business decisions from all other aspects – including process
Trace the business logic from motivation to code and to manual processes
Express the business logic plainly
Position the business logic for change

21. So much more to talk about!
Questions?