Business Rules, as defined by our textbook are a description of policies, procedures or principles of an organization written in a simple and concise format. These rules are used to create the necessary structure for which the organization will operate within. They cover every aspect of the Business and define even the most routine tasks. Customer interaction, how employees are hired, how products are developed and how products are shipped are some examples of Business Rules.
The Business rules once they are defined are then able to be converted into database entities, attributes, relationships and constraints. These items are then used in the database design for the company. From these entities and attributes relationships are created that correspond to the defined Business rules. Any rules that specifically name a person, place or thing will become attributes or entities in the database. Constraints are placed on the data to maintain the integrity and they are also derived from the Business rules. Examples of these are the days and times that the Business is open and how much an employee is allowed to make in a certain job function.
Business rules exist for an organization whether or not they are ever written down, talked about or even part of the organization’s consciousness. However it is a fairly common practice for organizations to gather business rules. This may happen in one of two ways. Organizations may choose to proactively describe their business practices, producing a database of rules. While this activity may be beneficial, it may be expensive and time consuming. For example, they might hire a consultant to come through the organization to document and consolidate the various standards and methods currently in practice. More commonly, business rules are discovered and documented informally during the initial stages of a project. In this case the collecting of the business rules is incidental. In addition, business projects, such as the launching of a new product or the re-engineering of a complex process, might lead to the definition of new business rules. This practice of incidental, or emergent, business rule gathering is vulnerable to the creation of inconsistent or even conflicting