Business rules are a crucial element in BA documentation. Describing business rules well ensures that documents are thorough and logical, improves the development team's efficiency and time management, and minimizes risks.
What are Business Rules?
In software development, business rules are constraints and regulations related to business processes and the system, designed to ensure:
Workflow and business process rules: Real-world client workflows and business processes are optimized without altering their fundamental nature when implemented in software. For instance, a purchase flow with 3 approval steps might be optimized to 2 steps in the software.
Formulas and calculation rules: Formulas and calculation rules used in the client's actual operations are accurately and logically implemented. This includes things like salary calculations, revenue calculations, etc.
Data handling, checks, and validation: Data processing, checks, and validation within the system are reasonable and logical. For example, a user's role must be validated as a manager before they can approve a leave request.
Display rules and constraints.
Authorization and role-based access: Permissions and roles for executing functions within the system align with real-world usage.
Smooth and convenient integration with other systems.
... and more.
How are Business Rules Used?
Business rules, or BRs, are utilized in various stages and documents throughout the BA process.
The presentation of these rules can vary depending on the stage and the type of document.
BRs are most commonly used in specification documents (SRS) or diagrams that describe system behavior, such as UML diagrams and BPMN diagrams.
The Importance of Business Rules
As mentioned above, you can see that BRs are truly crucial in software development. Business rules help:
Ensure logic and consistency during development: Eliminate infeasible or illogical elements before the software is developed.
Guarantee data and information consistency and integrity: This is especially important for complex systems with many interconnected functions that can affect each other.
Create a solid foundation for product quality: Good BRs help developers build software more accurately and minimize logical risks. They also help testers develop test cases for logic more quickly and efficiently.
... and more.
This post covers the basics to provide a general overview of BRs for newcomers. In the next post, I'll discuss how to identify BRs when writing documentation and how to describe them effectively.
Comments