The systematic interaction of software developers with the business domain experts that are usually no software developers is crucial to software system maintenance and creation and has surfaced as the big challenge of modern software engineering. Existing frameworks promoting the typical programming languages with artificial syntax are suitable to be processed by computers but do not cater to domain experts, who are used to documents written in natural language as a means of interaction. Other frameworks that claim to be fully automated, such as those using natural language processing, are too imprecise to handle the typical requirements documents written in heterogeneous natural language flavours. In this thesis, a framework is proposed that can support the specification of business rules that is, on the one hand, understandable for nonprogrammers and on the other hand semantically founded, which enables computer processability. This is achieved by the novel language Adaptive Business Process and Rule Integration Language (APRIL). Specifications in APRIL can be written in a style close to natural language and are thus suitable for humans, which was empirically evaluated with a representative group of test persons. A useful and uncommon feature of APRIL is the ability to define reusable abstract mixfix operators as sentence patterns, that can mimic natural language. The semantic underpinning of the mixfix operators is achieved by customizable atomic formulas, allowing to tailor APRIL to specific domains. Atomic formulas are underpinned by a denotational semantics, which is based on Tempura (executable subset of Interval Temporal Logic (ITL)) to describe behaviour and the Object Constraint Language (OCL) to describe invariants and pre- and postconditions. APRIL statements can be used as the basis for automatically generating test code for software systems. An additional aspect of enhancing the quality of specification documents comes with a novel formal method technique (ISEPI) applicable to behavioural business rules semantically based on Propositional Interval Temporal Logic (PITL) and complying with the newly discovered 2-to-1 property. This work discovers how the ISE subset of ISEPI can be used to express complex behavioural business rules in a more concise and understandable way. The evaluation of ISE is done by an example specification taken from the car industry describing system behaviour, using the tools MONA and PITL2MONA. Finally, a methodology is presented that helps to guide a continuous transformation starting from purely natural language business rule specification to the APRIL specification which can then be transformed to test code. The methodologies, language concepts, algorithms, tools and techniques devised in this work are part of the APRIL-framework.

This thesis concerns the development of a diagramming technique which assists in the specification of information systems requirements. The technique is called the Business Rules Diagram (BRD) although earlier versions were given different names. The term development in the title of this thesis is defined here to include both the work involved in designing the BRD as well as testing its usefulness. So, the scope of this research covers research activity starting from the original idea for the diagram through to testing its usefulness.Action research was the research method used. In all, two major action research studies were undertaken. The first involved working with an analyst only. The second involved working with an analyst and users.

The work is based on the research of business rules classification and specification methods. The basics of business rules approach are discussed. The most common business rules classification and modeling methods are analyzed. Business rules modeling techniques and tools for supporting them in the information systems are presented. Basing on the analysis results business rules classification method is proposed. Templates for every business rule type are presented. Business rules structuring process is shortly described. Business rules repository architecture, which is based on the proposed classification method, is presented. Proposed repository can store all types of business rules of defined classification method. Rules in the database are stored linked with events which are grouped by business functions. Such rules storing makes repository structure more flexible and more adaptive in information systems. Repository can function as an independent database for storing business rules and can be fully integrated in to the rule based information system. Rule specification tool for business rules registering and viewing was created. This tool has a simple user interface which allows register business rules and provides first steps in formalizing business statements. Finally conclusions are presented.

<p>E-business provides important opportunities of trade for businesses, and the supporting business system must handle this environment efficiently. One current trend in business systems is to move business logic, such as business processes and business rules, out from the application logic and into separate support systems. The reason to make this separation is to increase the agility of the business, to make the system able to change more rapidly when the business situation changes.</p><p>This report focus on business rules enforced in business rule engines. Specific interest is on how such rule engines meet the requirements of the e-business domain. The report presents an overview of business rule engines. Five general categories of characteristics are proposed. The proposed characteristics are then used in a comparison of three business rule engines.</p>

Šiame darbe nagrinėjama veiklos taisyklių sąvoka, jų klasifikacijos būdai bei panaudojimo galimybės skirtingiems poreikiams realizuoti. Kaip veiklos taisyklės yra specifikuojamos ir kokiais būdais galima jomis manipuliuoti. Pagrindinis šio darbo tikslas ištirti taisyklių valdymo įrankį (Blaze Advisor), išnagrinėti veiklos taisyklių specifikavimo principus, naudojant objektiškai orientuotą SRL kalbą bei jų panaudojimo galimybes remiantis vidiniais įrankio komponentais, skirtais veiklos taisyklių realizacijai. Atlikus išsamią analizę pastebėta, jog esti trūkumų, kurie neleidžia efektyviai modeliuoti veiklos taisykles bei apriboja įmonių atstovų priėjimą prie jų. Siekiant pašalinti trūkumus siūloma metodika, kuri suteiktų lankstesnį būdą veiklos taisyklėms kurti bei valdyti. Kuri užtikrintų galimybę veiklos atstovams patiems dalyvauti realizavimo ir kūrimo etape be IT specialisto betarpiškos pagalbos. Realizuojant sistemą siūlomu metodu, suteikiama galimybė veiklos atstovams valdyti veiklos procesus, keičiant veiklos taisyklių leistinas dalis, taip pakeičiant visą programos ir jos vykdymo logiką bei priimamus sprendimus. Galima lengvai veiklos procesus pritaikyti prie besikeičiančių sąlygų, kurios vienaip ar kitaip įtakoja įmonės veiklą, sumažinant įmonės kaštus. / In this work there is analyzed business rules` conception, ways of their classification and possibilities to use them in order to realize different needs, how business rules are specified and how you can manipulate them. The main aim of this work is to explore rules Blaze Advisor, to analyze business rules specification principles, by using objectively oriented SRL language and opportunities to use them on the ground of inner advisor components designed for business rules realization. After the detailed analysis it was noticed that there are defects, which don`t let effectively model business rules and narrow the access enterprises representatives to them, trying to eliminate the defects by suggested methods, which would present a more flexible way to create business rules and guide, which would ensure the possibility for business representatives themselves to participate in the realization and creation stage without IT specialists immediate help. Realizing the system by the suggested method, there is a possibility for business representatives to guide business processes, by changing business rules` permissible parts, in this way all the program`s and its realization logic and acceptable decisions. It`s easy to conform business processes to the changeable conditions, which in one or another way make influence to the enterprise`s activity by reducing the enterprise`s costs.

E-business provides important opportunities of trade for businesses, and the supporting business system must handle this environment efficiently. One current trend in business systems is to move business logic, such as business processes and business rules, out from the application logic and into separate support systems. The reason to make this separation is to increase the agility of the business, to make the system able to change more rapidly when the business situation changes. This report focus on business rules enforced in business rule engines. Specific interest is on how such rule engines meet the requirements of the e-business domain. The report presents an overview of business rule engines. Five general categories of characteristics are proposed. The proposed characteristics are then used in a comparison of three business rule engines.

In this thesis, a requirements traceability model is proposed in order to make efficient and effective change request impact analysis. The proposed model is a requirements &ndash / requirements traceability model. There are several researches regarding software requirements traceability problem. The main problem of these researches is that the proposed solutions can not be applied to software industry with affordable changes. However, current literature begins to see that describing all the software requirements in a huge black box is not so much applicable to today&rsquo / s more dynamic and bigger software projects, especially regarding change management. The proposed traceability model tries to be a solution to these problems. Change requests and business rules are two important and popular terms for today&rsquo / s software industry. The traceability model consists of three types of software requirements: data definitions, business rules and use cases. The traceability model proposes bidirectional traces between these types. Data definitions, business rules and use cases are related to each other and they all should be seen as parts of a software system which should work together to make the software system work properly. Empirical investigation is made on a real industrial software project. These types were configured in order to match to the project specific needs in a reconfigurable way. Experimental results show that the traceability model has an acceptable degree of correctness.

In the research of the business IS development the business rules approach has achieved a lot of attention and already has a steady niche with a strong motivation behind. The usefulness of the approach and its advantages over the traditional IS development approaches call for the technology standards. Despite the work done towards standardization there is still a way to go – commercial products use their unique modeling languages for business rules, most of their rules processing and enforcement engines are stand-alone, even the embeddable ones use their unique rules representation format. In our research focusing on the business rules we have stepped towards employing the widely spread technology of active databases and have argued that it is feasible and possible to model business rules using conceptual graphs. Such a model having representations in visual and textual form (linear form and CGIF) and the possibility to translate the model to the near natural English language can be used both at conceptual and implementation levels. We have designed and implemented the automatic trigger generation component. Using the representative example from the real business organization (the representative example was comprised of structural domain knowledge and corresponding business rules) we have carried out the experiment during which the business rules model was transformed from visual notation to CGIF, then from CGIF to XML, and then from XML to MS SQL Server trigger. The... [to full text]

In the research of the business IS development the business rules approach has achieved a lot of attention and already has a steady niche with a strong motivation behind. The usefulness of the approach and its advantages over the traditional IS development approaches call for the technology standards. Despite the work done towards standardization there is still a way to go – commercial products use their unique modeling languages for business rules, most of their rules processing and enforcement engines are stand-alone, even the embeddable ones use their unique rules representation format. In our research focusing on the business rules we have stepped towards employing the widely spread technology of active databases and have argued that it is feasible and possible to model business rules using conceptual graphs. Such a model having representations in visual and textual form (linear form and CGIF) and the possibility to translate the model to the near natural English language can be used both at conceptual and implementation levels. We have designed and implemented the automatic trigger generation component. Using the representative example from the real business organization (the representative example was comprised of structural domain knowledge and corresponding business rules) we have carried out the experiment during which the business rules model was transformed from visual notation to CGIF, then from CGIF to XML, and then from XML to MS SQL Server trigger. The... [to full text]

Sprendžiami, veiklos taisyklių specifikavimas ir klasifikavimas manipuliavimo mechanizmais. Tiriama, kaip, duomenų bazės struktūra transformuojama į veiklos taisyklių kūrimo aplinką, neprarandant duomenų struktūros elementų, ir užtikrinant pilną sąveika su duomenų baze.Išanalizuota veiklos taisyklės sąvoka ir jos pritaikymo galimybės veiklos procesų architektūroje. Apžvelgtos šiuolaikinės veiklos taisyklių manipuliavimo mechanizmų architektūros. Plačiau išnagrinėtos Blaze Advisor sistemos galimybės, kaip veiklos taisyklių valdymo sistema. Išnagrinėta 18 literatūros šaltinių. Sudaryta projektavimo metodika. Kurioje atsispindi pagrindiniai principai kaip transformuojama duomenų bazės struktūrą į veiklos taisyklių valdymo sistemos duomenų struktūrą. Laikantis metodikos atliktas eksperimentas tarp Blaze Advisor sistemos ir duomenų bazės. Sudarytos konceptualios schemos vaizduojančios duomenų srautus vykdymo metu informacinėje sistemoje: nuo duomenų bazės iki sprendimo. Suformuota metodika yra skirta praktiniam panaudojimui; ją taikant užtikrinamas sklandus veiklos taisyklių susiejimas su duomenų bazėje saugomais duomenimis sistemos projektavimo ir realizavimo etapuose. / Nowadays, nearly all of the commercial and government organizations are highly dependent on software system. Due to the inherent dynamic nature of their business environment, software evolution is inevitable. The growing of needs in management of global organizations similarly is growing the expert systems designing companies, which offer their own organizations management systems. This paper substance is how to transform the data structures to the business rules management systems, without losing the database structure elements, and ensuring fully interaction with the database. Representing the concept of business rules, analyzing architecture of business rules manipulation mechanisms. Exploring the Blaze Advisor as tool of business rule management system, which is implement of components such as: rule sets, decision trees, decision tables, and etc. These components are developing the processes of organization, which helps to efficient maintain and control the operations of internal logic. A study carried out between the Blaze Advisor tool and database, and established how to filtering the data from database, and then a data are transformed into information, and under information using the components to get the solution. To give spirit of this work was formulated a method of transforming data structures into development environment of business rules.