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  5. Part XIV. Business rule
  6. Chapter 1. Business rule management
  7. Managing business rules

How to Define Business Rules and Model it in Diagram?

A business rule defines guideline with necessary constraint(s) needed for executing certain business operations. You can record and describe business rules with rule editor as well as to identify the term (vocabulary) involved in the rule, which helps tracing fact concepts around rules.

Defining a business rule

  1. Select Diagram > New from the application toolbar.
  2. In the New Diagram window, select Business Rule Grid.
  3. Click Next.
  4. Enter the diagram name and description. The Location field enables you to select a model to store the diagram.
  5. Click OK.
  6. This shows the Business Rule Grid. Click on New Business Rule to create a rule and enter a short and descriptive phrase as its name.
  7. Double click on the rule to edit it further.
  8. Fill in the rule content in the Rule field.
    Selected business rule
    Selected business rule

An overview of rule editor

Overview of rule editor
Overview of rule editor

No. Name Description
1 Rule A tab that shows the primary rule information such as its name and definition
2 Stereotypes A list of stereotypes applied to the rule. You can extend a rule from a stereotype to add domain specific meaning to it. For example, you can extend a rule from stereotype critical to represent an important rule.
3 Attributes Read, add and remove attributes from the rule. Attributes can be added to denote extra properties to a rule.
4 ID A value that makes each rule unique. When you create a rule, an ID will be assigned automatically. The assigned ID indicates the order of rule creation.
5 Name A short phrase that describes the rule.
6 Type The type of business rule. You may click ... the customize the available rule types in this project. Business rules created in this project can be in any of the defined type.
7 Rule definition A longer and more detailed description of rule.
8 Synchronize selection When the checkbox is checked, the Terms and Facts' active node selection will follow the selection as pointed by the mouse pointer in the Rule definition field.
9 Terms A list of terms that involve in the rule definition.
10 Term definition By selecting a term in Terms list, its definition will appear in the Definition field.
11 Facts A list of facts that involve in the rule definition.
12 Term definition By selecting a term in Facts list, its definition will appear in the Definition field.

Description of rule editor

Visualizing business rule on diagram

Instead of creating a business rule as described above, you can also create a business rule shape on a diagram. Although there is no specific type of diagram made for presenting business rule, you can draw business rule on any type of diagram. To draw a business rule on a diagram:

  1. Select Business Rule from the toolbar.
    Selecting Business Rule in diagram toolbar
    Selecting Business Rule in diagram toolbar
  2. Click on the diagram to create a business rule. Name the rule with a short and descriptive phrase and press Enter to confirm.
    A business rule is created
    A business rule is created
    If you need to describe the rule in detail, right click on the rule shape and select Open Rule Editor from the popup menu. After that, fill in the rule definition in rule editor as mentioned above.
    Open the rule editor to define the rule
    Open the rule editor to define the rule

Expanding and collapsing rule

A business rule shape has two visual states - collapsed and expanded. While in collapsed state, the business rule hides away the definition of rule, in expanded state, a new compartment will appear in the middle rule shape for showing the rule definition.

To expand or collapse a rule shape, click on the top-left corner of rule shape.

Expand a collapsed rule shape
Expand a collapsed rule shape

An expanded rule shape
An expanded rule shape

Business rule group

If you find a number of rules are of the same category, you can group them.

  1. Select the rule shapes.
    Select rules
    Select rules
  2. Right click on the selection and select Group Business Rules from the popup menu.
    To group rules
    To group rules
    Rules are grouped
    Rules are grouped

Related Resources

The following resources may help you to learn more about the topic discussed in this page.

 
Chapter 1. Business rule management Table of Contents 2. Business rule grid

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