Business rules represent the constraints on behavior of the business and the policies and guidelines which drive business decisions. Business rules are owned by LoB and not by IT.
Business users participate in and control rule definition and change, while business process experts model, validate, deploy, update, and archive business rules through their lifecycle. This enables IT organizations to work with business users to manage the business rules that drive process flow and execution.
- Application Rules and Business Rules
A business rule is not the same as a rule defined and used in software applications. It is important to understand the difference between rules and business rules.
Rules used in software applications are a set of conditions with associated actions. These are typically introduced in the form of an If/Then statement, for example, database constraint rules and object model rules. The rules are owned and managed by IT and not by the business.
Business rules represent a set of standard business practices and policies that need to be applied consistently across business activities and are owned and managed by the business. Examples of business rules include Loan Product Eligibility Guidelines and Product Configuration Rules.
- Business Rules in an Organization
Business rules are the most dynamic component of any application. Using business rules consistently improves an organization's adaptability to industry changes and competition. Externalizing business logic in the form of simple rules ensures that these rules are easily communicated across the organization and managed separately from the application code: business adaptability and flexibility via IT stability.
Business rules are an integral and inherent part of an organization's daily operations. When introducing business rules, organizations have to consider the rules inherent in the following items:
Business Rules in an Organization may concern:
- Corporate charters
- Management practices
- Regulatory forces
- Human resources management
- Marketing strategies
- Pricing policies
- Products and services offerings
- Customer relationship practices
- ...
- BRM Offerings
SAP Business Rules Management (BRM) contain rules modeling capabilities targeting business analysts and rules implementation capabilities targeting business rules developers.
Technical capabilities of SAP BRM for business rules composition and modeling use the following guidelines:
- Business analysts are enabled to model complex business rules in an appropriate format of their choice.
- Both business analysts and rules developers are capable of inspecting business rules consistency and resolving conflicts.
- Developers are able to use rule models with data definitions of their choice for implementing executable rules.
- A seamless navigation from business process to business rules through integrated modeling for processes and rules is used.
Guidelines for If-Then Rules are:
- Simple English like statements joined with and/or.
- Priorities for specifying sequences of execution.
- Rules overrides to declare mutually exclusive rules.
Guidelines for Decision Tables are:
- Tabular representation of rules.
- Integration with Microsoft Excel.
- Features such as returning multiple rows of values and dynamic invocation.
The figure shows a typical example of flow rules.
Flow rules are laid out in a flow-like structure.
Complex rules can be modeled using the following methods:
- Gateways to branch out into different paths.
- Rule scripts to hold a set of actions.
- If-Then rules.
- Decision tables.
- Other flows and rule sets.
Flow rules can integrate through flow elements until some condition is satisfied and make it easier to get an overview of the rule implementation.
End-to-End development support is provided through the Eclipse-based Rules Composer, a user interface with role-based access to manage and deploy business rules at runtime, manage access permissions and versioning, and trace business rules reports.
Rules accelerate SAP Business Process Management (BPM) by providing the following features:
- Clear de-coupling of process logic from decision logic.
- Automated decisioning.
- Reusable business rules services.
- Rule-based correlations for real-time business events.
Use cases for rules in SAP BPM include the following examples:
- Complex rules-based decisions (for example, pricing and credit decisions).
- Responsibility determination.
- Recognition of business events.
- Routing rules
- Parameter thresholds and tolerance (constraint rules).
SAP BRM provide complete lifecycle change management capabilities for securing, governing and managing business rules.
Rules versioning, permissions, alerts, are provided with the Rules Repository, containing data types, service interfaces, and service operations for composition and reuse. SAP BRM provides both design-time and runtime rules repository services.
Business users are able to completely coordinate management, review, and change approval activities in a collaborative fashion using a secure and protected web based business UI.
Access management, reporting services, traceability and change approval mechanisms enable organizations to perform rules asset management, having the security of managing their business rules as concisely as any other organizational asset.
Further features are:
- Tabular representation of rules.
- Integration with Microsoft Excel.
- Features such as returning multiple rows of values and dynamic invocation.
Reusability of Rules
Technical usage scenarios for rules with SAP BRM include the following:
- Model rules driven decisions from within a composite business process model.
- Model rules in SAP Composition Environment independently and reuse them across a variety of edge composite applications and BPM functionalities.
- Model rules in SAP Composition Environment and call these rules from an ABAP business application through the Business Rules Framework Plus-Java BRM Connector.
- Call a rule driven decision modeled as a Web service in SAP Composition Environment from within the SAP Business Warehouse component.
Reusability of Rules
Technical usage scenarios for rules with SAP BRM include the following:
- Model rules driven decisions from within a composite business process model.
- Model rules in SAP Composition Environment independently and reuse them across a variety of edge composite applications and BPM functionalities.
- Model rules in SAP Composition Environment and call these rules from an ABAP business application through the Business Rules Framework Plus-Java BRM Connector.
- Call a rule driven decision modeled as a Web service in SAP Composition Environment from within the SAP Business Warehouse component.
Rules Composer and Process Composer
Business rules can be created in the Rules Composer or the Process Composer.
Business rules describe the operation, definition, and constraints on the behavior of a business and enables decision automation. Business rules represent the core business logic of each organization and guide and control the basic business processes form the back bone of any business transaction.
The following are two types of composers:
- Rules Composer — Business rules modeled the Rules Composer can be used in any other business application or business process.
- Process Composer — Business rules modeled in the Process Composer can only be used in a business process context.
Rules Composer allows a separation of business rules from the application code and from a complex business process workflow. Rules Composer also reduces the complexity in maintaining constraints, which affects the business process.
Process Composer helps you centralize the entire process. It shows the business process and the constraints affecting the process in the same development component.