Business Rules Management - Best Practice
Business rules management is a feature of Framework ECM that compares one or more fields against each other to enforce the full and complete capture of required data. The business rules functionality was developed to ensure jobs do not move forward through the system without having key dates and information entered. These dates and information are determined by the business and rules are created accordingly.
What are Business Rules?
A business rule is a statement that defines or constrains some aspect of the business. It is intended to assert business behaviour, or to control or influence the behaviour of the business.
In Framework, business rules express specific constraints on the creation, modification and removal of data in the system. The business rules control whether or not such data may be created or changed and the implications when this occurs. The business rules describe a state that is either required or prohibited and enforce the logical sequence of events in the work flow.
The rules also define the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour when making additions or changes to the system.
Business rules and the ability to change them effectively are the keys to improving the integrity of Framework.
Some Guidelines
The construction industry is reliant on a critical path to manage activities for jobs in the work flow. Framework Business Rules Management enables the builder to develop and enforce their own critical path, specific to their processes and needs.
The following guidelines are general points to consider when entering or modifying data in Framework. Using these guidelines should reduce the number of business rule violations that may occur.
Handling Business Rule Violations
Basic business rules have been devised to ensure that modifications to Framework’s data are applied correctly. The business rules that have been supplied with Framework are those that enforce the logical sequence of events in a typical work flow.
In many cases, business rule violations only occur when a received date has been entered before a required ordered date.
When a business rule violation has occurred, a message will be displayed listing the rule or rules that have been violated. The screen remains in edit mode, giving the user the opportunity to update data to valid values.
Some fields may have one or more business rules applied to it. This means that a number of activities must occur before a field’s rules are satisfied. For example: soil report, survey and siting must be received, pre-administration must be complete, estimation must be ordered and the administrator must be selected before a tender can be signed.
Refer to the following content, which outlines some scenarios in which business rules are violated and the methods used to correct them.
Benefits Of Business Rules Management
Business rules are typically used to compare two or more dates against each other. The design of the rules are usually that field A must occur before field B (e.g., Soil Report Ordered must occur before Soil Report Received). Business rules are not restricted to simple date field pairs. They can be designed to enforce the selection of an entity from a popup list, the selection of Yes or No Boolean fields, as well as a range of other fields used in Framework ECM.
Designing and implementing business rules ensure that jobs move through the system only once they have satisfied the minimum captured data requirements and ensure that activities are being completed in the correct order. This promotes a high level of data integrity and consistent and accurate reporting.
What To Do
Requirements
Before designing and implementing business rules there are a couple of things that should be in place:
- If customised Framework ECM Overview screens (Pre-Administration, Administration, Construction & Maintenance) are in use, the rules should be designed based on the organisation's specific business processes.
- Which staff member(s) will have the ability to override the business rules if the need arises. Typically a department manager would have the ability to override business rules if the exception meant that meeting the rule would be misleading or inappropriate. Other staff would need to make a compelling case in order to override the rules. This practice ensures that the integrity of the data is maintained.
Planning
Before implementing business rules, all staff members in the company should be notified that a change is being implemented. They should be provided with an explanation of what the business rules will do, why they are being put in place, and a firm date when they will be switched on.
The initial phase of the implementation should consist of all staff members having the ability to override the business rules. This will educate the staff of the rules that they are currently breaking and the types of messages they will see without preventing them from doing their job.
Once the initial phase is in place, all staff members should be notified that the ability to override the business rules will be switched off after a specified period. They should be given a firm date where they will no longer be able to override the rules and the instructions/procedures for speaking to a manager if they feel they need to override a rule after this date. It is likely that there will be data in the system that doesn't adhere to the new rules, these jobs will need to be back filled or run out once business rules are switched on.
Implementation
Business rules should be implemented gradually. It is best to switch on the rules for one department or major work flow stage at a time, starting with pre-administration and administration. Once satisfied that this area is set up correctly and the staff issues are solved, move on to the construction stage.
Due to the nature of the Business Rules design, Insula Software usually creates the rules. On-site training can be arranged if the management and creation of rules are to be handled in-house. For details of operands and methods, please see Business Rules - String Syntax.
Ongoing Management
Business Rules should be reviewed anytime a screen or process change is made to ensure that the process is still being enforced correctly.