March 7, 2007

11:15 AM - 12:15 PM

Level: Advanced

What is the look and feel of a typical business rules project? In this presentation, Mr. Ross uses a real-life case study from the insurance industry to illustrate in detail how structured business vocabularies play an essential role in the capture, expression and analysis of business rules.

Starting with source underwriter guidelines for auto insurance, Mr. Ross takes you step-by-step through business rule methodology. He highlights how the business vocabulary is built and portrayed, and is then used to identify gaps, discrepancies and anomalies in the rules. He explains what deliverables, techniques and tools you’ll need to support the effort, and how to ensure success both in your interactions with business people, and in moving toward implementation.

• The business rules approach to vocabulary and rules.
• Fact models – visualizing the business vocabulary.
• Fact models vs. data models.
• Reduction of rule logic.
• How to organize and analyze large, complex sets of rules.
• RuleSpeakR, structured business-friendly syntax for expressing business rules.
• Tips and tricks.

Ronald G. Ross is Co-Founder and Principal of Business Rule Solutions, LLC (www.BRSolutions.com). BRS provides workshops, consulting services, publications, and methodology supporting business analysis, business rules, business vocabulary, and rule management. His popular public seminars on business rules and business analysis, the first on business rules (starting in 1996) and the longest-running in the industry, are given through AttainingEdge (www.AttainingEdge.com).

At BRS, Mr. Ross co-develops ProteusR, its landmark business analysis and business rules methodology, which features numerous innovative techniques including the popular RuleSpeakR (available free through www.BRCommunity.com). These are the latest offerings in a 30-year career that has consistently featured creative, business-driven solutions.

Mr. Ross also serves as Executive Editor of www.BRCommunity.com and its flagship on-line publication, Business Rules Journal. He is a regular columnist for the Journal’s Commentary section which also features John Zachman, Chris Date, Terry Halpin, and Roger Burlton. BRCommunity.com, hosted and sponsored by BRS, is a vertical community for professionals working with business rules and related areas. Mr. Ross was formerly Editor of the Data Base Newsletter from 1977 to 1998.

Mr. Ross is recognized internationally as the “father of business rules.” He has served as Co-Chair of the annual Business Rules Forum Conference since 1997. He was a charter member of the Business Rules Group (BRG) in the 1980s, and an editor of the two landmark BRG papers, “The Business Motivation Model: Business Governance in a Volatile World” (2000, revised 2005) and the “Business Rules Manifesto” (2003). He is also active in OMG standards development for business rules and business models, having core involvement in SBVR (Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules).

Mr. Ross is the author of eight professional books. His newest are: Business Rule Concepts (2005), a second edition of his popular, easy-to-read 1998 handbook, and Principles of the Business Rule Approach, Addison-Wesley (2003), featuring the business rationale and opportunity for business rules. An earlier work, The Business Rule Book (1994, 1997), was the seminal work in the field.

Mr. Ross has received several industry awards, including DAMA International’s Individual Achievement Award for 1995. Mr. Ross received his M.S. in information science from Illinois Institute of Technology, and his B.A. from Rice University.