ABSTRACT
Business rules traditionally have been implemented in procedural logic buried deep in application programs — in a form that is virtually unrecognizable, and far removed from original business intent. The textual statement of business rules is extremely important. Every rule should be accompanied by an English-language expression of the rule’s business intent. Rule types can be viewed as an alphabet for a business-rule language. Rules may be interconnected in building-block fashion to model more complex business rules. Every rule performs some test for instances of the constrained object and constraining object(s), as indicated by its rule type. This test always requires these instances to be reflected, evaluated, tallied or computed in some manner unique to that rule type. A derivative is any rule type that may also be expressed by specification of other rules. Traditional business rule strategies have been inconsistent at best — making change almost impossible.
