A Quick 5-Item List of What Are Not Business Rules!
1. Assigning values to variables.
2. Asserting mandatory GUI fields.
3. Specifying which data can be viewed by which users.
4. Expressing which documents are to be routed to which queues.
5. Orchestrating tasks assignments in an execution environment.
Depending on your implementation preferences, specifications for such things might (or might not) appear rule-ish.
But … business rules are what you need to run the business, not what you use to set-up systems (even if rule-ish). Such specifications might be representations of business rules, their surrogates, but they are not business rules per se. Business rules are communicated of, by and for people. Big difference!
P.S. For examples see RuleSpeak 3.0 (free download): http://www.brsolutions.com/b_ipspeakprimers.php
Tags: Business Rules, business rules vs system rules, RuleSpeak
Ronald G. Ross
Ron Ross, Principal and Co-Founder of Business Rules Solutions, LLC, is internationally acknowledged as the “father of business rules.” Recognizing early on the importance of independently managed business rules for business operations and architecture, he has pioneered innovative techniques and standards since the mid-1980s. He wrote the industry’s first book on business rules in 1994.