The Value of Assessments

Many organizations have considered assessments, formal and informal, of business rules technology when looking at reengineering efforts or at new enterprise development projects slated to involve business rule technology. The promised value of using business rules—often generated by one or more of the business rule vendors---is hard to ignore, especially for industries whose IT systems have ever changing and complex functional logic, or where the rules that run the business needs to be outside the control of the internal groups that implemented the old rules in a cryptic, traditional manor. The “leap of faith” many organizations currently take when they assume that detailed requirements are being translated into production code makes little sense for regulated industries or for any industry where the implementation of business rules is a business asset.

So, how can an organization move from this vague feeling that business rules can help them to a specific, thought-out strategy for the inclusion of business rules? An excellent first step is a business rule assessment. These short-term, focused efforts can be done with internal staff, or by using an outside consulting services provider.

During the assessment, a series of discovery meeting are scheduled during which thewhich the attendees answer questions grouped in various ways to help determine the organization’s readiness and aptitude for adopting business rules technology. There are usually separate meetings for technical management, development staff, business analysts, production deployment, and testing staff.

These assessments can have several outcomes. The organization should develop a final report, based on the information gathered at the discovery meetings, concerning the suitability of business rule technology for the organization. Another possible outcome is the definition of a proof-of-concept (POC) project. A POC is a detailed description of the requirements of such a project along with a project plan illustrating how the POC can be implemented within the structures and processes of the organization. A previous Down to Earth Business Rules blog entry discusses the merits of these POC projects. In other cases, the assessment will focus on helping make specific vendor choices for business rule development technology, again, based on specific information gathered during the discovery process.

After the assessment, an organization can be ready to step into a business rule project with a much-increased knowledge base as to how this technology will impact their firm specifically. I highly recommend firms just beginning to think about business rules take the time to conduct an assessment. If schedules and the staffing model permit, the assessment can be internally conducted. An internal assessment has the added benefit of allowing for even more learning about the organization and about business rules by the internal group conducting the assessment. This knowledge then stays within the organization. When time is short or the staff is not available, an alternative is to contract out the assessment to a firm with previous experience in these areas. Deciding whether to outsource an assessment is akin to a make-versus-buy analysis on the business rule applicability knowledge derived from the assessment.