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March, 2004 |
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Thank You Barbara von Halle Business Processes and Business Rules Perfect Together or Perfect Apart? Tuesday March 9, 2004 Download her zipped Powerpoint Slides  Barbara von HalleKnowledge Partners, Inc Are Business Process and Business Rules Perfect Together or Perfect Apart? The answer depends on many factors, including the degree to which rule and process capture are automated, the degree to which rule deployment is automated, the level of organizational/cultural readiness to leverage business rules as a separate asset, and the stage in the software development lifecycle in which one is dealing with the rules. At this well received meeting, Barbara presented a Business Logic Maturity Model which reflects the stages of cultural readiness to work with business rules, the technical environment in which that readiness can thrive, and the business benefits which achieved. Although similar in spirit to the Capability Maturity Model, the Business Logic Maturity Model recognizes an initial level where an organization is totally unaware that it would benefit from understanding and managing in its business rules, a much-too-common situation in many organizations today. Tools are emerging to capture and analyze rules obtained directly from the business decision-makers. Tool support is also emerging to harvest and evaluate rules buried in legacy systems and techniques. And rule engines continue to be refined in ways that better support deployment of rules. Tool usage helps move an organization to higher levels of Business Logic Maturity. However, no matter what the level of automation (or its lack), at a minimum, separating business rules during initial project work provides early opportunities to analyze rules and to confirm that they continue to support business policies. Barbara relayed some interesting techniques which could be used to identify conflicts and inconsistencies between rules. Taken "to the max", automated management and deployment of business rules allows business areas more control over their rules, better analysis of their rules, greater ability to trace rules and assess the impact of rule changes, and more flexibility for changing them. The future holds exciting promise for using business rules as part of business intelligence. Businesses will reach the highest level of "business logic maturity" when the business outcome of rule enforcement can be measured and when businesses can adjust and refine rules to promote better business results. When that level of maturity is reached, the rules, which were analyzed separately and managed separately, will be integrated into and enforced as part of business processes management. Reported by Susan Burk Barbara von Halle is the founder of Knowledge Partners, Inc. (KPI). KPI specializes in enterprise information architecture and strategy, data warehouse/data mart development, and business rule systems development. KPI DWH scoping and requirements approach is offered through the Data Warehouse Institute. In 1996, Barbara received the honored Outstanding Individual Achievement Award from the International Data Management Association, being the third individual to receive this award. As a part-time journalist, von Halle was the leading contributing editor for Database Programming and Design Magazine(Miller Freeman Publishers) for over five years. She co-authored The Handbook of Relational Database Design (Addison-Wesley Publishing Company) which serves as a standard text in universities and business environments. She also co-edited The Handbook of Data Management (Auerbach Publishers), which was Auerbach’s best selling book. Her most recent book, Business Rules Applied (2002: Wiley & Sons) is the first book to contain a step-by-step approach for delivering business rule systems. It was a finalist in the 2002 Jolt Awards from Software Development Magazine. Barbara plays many roles in the company, but her primary responsibility is Capability Management. Through the Capability Management Function, Barbara ensures that all KPI consultants follow KPI’s data and rule methodology, standards, and guidelines on client engagements. Barbara last spoke to COOUG in August 2002.
 Reported by Terry McAuliffe |
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