Business Rules Applied: Building Better Systems Using the Business Rules Approach (Paperback)

~ Barbara von Halle (Author) "What differentiates human behavior from that of other known life forms?..." (more)
Key Phrases: core process flow, business rules approach, commercial rules technology, Case Study Instructions, Case Study Solution, Versata Logic Server (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"From a best selling author and expert-a soon-to-be classic on application development, representing a significant change of focus in software engineering, the business rule approach to application development benefits all decision makers." (Compbookreview.com, 11/01)

Product Description

From a bestselling author and expert--a soon-to-be classic on application development
Representing a significant change of focus in software engineering, the business rule approach to application development benefits all decision makers. Managers looking to take advantage of new opportunities will turn to business rules to implement change. IT has already learned the benefits of separating data by processing and managing data as an independent component of systems. A rules-extended development approach does exactly the same thing for business rules: by reducing the amount of code that needs to be written, it shortens the time necessary to implement change. Bestselling author Barbara von Halle (The Handbook of Relational Database Design from Addison Wesley) presents the first book to show in practical, real-world terms how to build applications using business rule concepts and techniques. This authoritative guide will give readers:
o Complete guidance for system designers and database managers
o The motivation for using the business rule approach
o Techniques for discovering and managing rules
o Guidance on how to conduct rule analysis
o Steps for designing the implementation options of the rules, as well as designing workflow and database components

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Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (October 17, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471412937
• ISBN-13: 978-0471412939
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #551,495 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read for Business Rule Managers, November 4, 2001

By	Robert S. Seiner "rseiner" (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews

There are only a handful of classic books that define the data and information management industry. Barbara von Halle has now written two of those books. Business Rules Applied defines business rule development the same way that the Handbook of Relational Database Design defined data modeling and database design back in 1988. Business Rules Applied is a must-read for all professionals that are serious about managing their business rules.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blueprint for Success, October 3, 2002

By	Alan T. Demmin (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I purchased Barbara von Halle's book after the 2001 Business Rules Forum in New Orleans. This forum is an annual meeting of experts, vendors, and participants in the business rules "evolution" and is used to share ideas and information among colleagues in the field. Barbara's book was introduced in many of the forum presentations, which prompted me to make the purchase. This action was perhaps the most significant step I have taken to fully understand the business rules methodology and has saved my current project from almost certain failure.

I have now implemented many of the ideas and techniques from the book and placed my business rules project on a road to success. My project has endured many obstacles, not the least of which is understanding the differences that are imposed on the project team from traditional re-engineering efforts. If I hadn't come across Barbara's excellent documentation on project scoping, rules discovery, and designing for the business rules approach, I would have seriously doubted our ability to implement the project successfully. My project team was able to read and comprehend the most important concepts from the book and we have been able to modify our project plan to incorporate her ideas and techniques.

I believe it is our responsibility as IT professionals to recognize the importance of the business rules movement and to follow a strict methodology when implementing any rules engine initiative. I must personally thank Barbara for sharing some of the most important concepts with this methodology. I honestly consider it my blueprint for success.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recognizing that business rules!, July 24, 2002

By	Martyn Richard Jones "Martyn Richard Jones" (Cordoba, Spain) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Dear Reader,

Business Rules, like Data Warehousing, both have the potential to dramatically reverse the downward spiral in the credibility and coherence of many IT organizations. Both initiatives focus on giving the business what it wants; Data Warehousing from mainly a strategic decision-making perspective and Business Rules from mainly an operational-support and tactical-orientation perspective.

To understand the importance of the role of Business Rules in business is to recognize a done deal, to actively go about leveraging Business Rules as the key component in process development, application development and application evolution is really the thing that will separate the smart people from the sceptics.

One of the problems of Business Rules, like Data Warehousing as well, is that they are both seemingly intuitive - the sort of thing that one could do just by imagining oneself what needs to be done. Now, don't let me put you off, and I would say that there is an element of truth in the idea that, at a certain level of abstraction, both the Data Warehousing and Business Rules concepts are very straightforward. However, and this is the crux of the matter, there are a number of seemingly small and insignificant project decisions to be made where the right decisions (based on experience) are not always the most obvious or intuitive choices, especially when we base our decisions on knowledge of other IT project methods, and, which in turn could lead to decisions that result in the collapse of your BR or DW project and the failure of yet another IT project.

So, if you think that Business Rules might be just the thing for your business then read this book. In it you will find a wealth of knowledge and experience. It leads the reader from a good description of real reasons for using the Business Rules approach, Business Rules concepts, through to the process of identifying, defining and capturing Business Rules, and describes, in great detail, an iterative project approach to the active and evolutionary management of Business Rules in business. The book is well structured, is easy to read - for such a detailed book - and, focuses on important issues, options and decisions involved in Business Rules.

As a long term advocate of the Business Rules approach I could not rate this book more highly.

Best regards,

Martyn R Jones
Iniciativa Org, SL