TADESSE TAREKE.pdf - Addis Ababa University

1.1 OVERVIEW
1.1.1 BUSINESS RULES SYSTEMS
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Maintenance cost accounts for more than 50% of software resource expenditures
[64]. In the case of a business rules system, this cost is basically manifested since
business rules are commonly buried in procedural codes and database constructs
that are inaccessible to the businesspeople (i.e., end users) [4, 26].
A business rules system is a computerized system that assists in the management
and execution of the business rules logic in running the business of an
organization [22]. Business rules represent that part of enterprise knowledge that
we can codify [5, 21, 22, 23, 25, 49, 55, 58]. A business rule can be a term or a fact
or a rule.
We say a business rules system is understandable and maintainable provided that
business rules can be directly managed by the businesspeople of an organization
[22, 49]. In doing so, businesspeople have control over the business rules.
Some of the areas of applications of business rules systems are: Payroll, Inventory
Control, Order Entry, Order Tracking, and Claims Processing Applications. The
formal approach of developing a business rules system is known as business rules
approach [22, 49].
1.1.2 DEVELOPMENT APPROACHES’ TRADE-OFFS
In the software industry, there are a number of approaches [10, 11, 22, 26, 49]
that help us develop software. Two of them are: Object-Oriented Approach (OOA)
and Business Rules Approach (BRA). The main advantage of using OOA is its
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