I have now implemented many of the ideas and techniques from the book and placed my business rules project on a road to success. My project has endured many obstacles, not the least of which is understanding the differences that are imposed on the project team from traditional re-engineering efforts. If I hadn't come across Barbara's excellent documentation on project scoping, rules discovery, and designing for the business rules approach, I would have seriously doubted our ability to implement the project successfully. My project team was able to read and comprehend the most important concepts from the book and we have been able to modify our project plan to incorporate her ideas and techniques.
I believe it is our responsibility as IT professionals to recognize the importance of the business rules movement and to follow a strict methodology when implementing any rules engine initiative. I must personally thank Barbara for sharing some of the most important concepts with this methodology. I honestly consider it my blueprint for success.
(1) A comprehensive approach to preparing for and implementing business rules as an enterprise-wide discipline. It accomplishes this by providing a life cycle approach to business rules development through ongoing management.
(2) The implementation approach is provided as a work breakdown structure, which significantly reduces your planning for an enterprise-wide initiative (or a pilot initiative based on a single project).
(3) There is an accompanying web site that provides additional papers, case studies and other materials that enhance the value of the book.
The introduction to business rules and concepts is perhaps too verbose, but is thorough. What this part of the book lacks in sparkling prose it more than compensates in detail. I particularly liked the chapter devoted to business rules methodology, which takes the concepts and applies them in a structured way. Another strong point is that the book provides many examples to reinforce points under discussion, and summarizes key information in easy-to-read tables. The illustrations that are sprinkled throughout the book also add clarity.
If you're new to business rules the best book, in my opinion, is Morgan's Business Rules and Information Systems. However, after reading that book you'll also want this one if you are serious about implementing business rules because of the way Ms. von Halle has structured the flow and content. Also, the author is one of the pioneers in the business rules community, which adds considerable authority and credibility to her approach.
However, I wish the book can be less verbose, with less repetition of the same concepts (such as continuously expounding on the advantages of business rules approach) throughout the whole book. They are distracting and not necessary. The book could have been more concise.
This is a topic worth exploring into and I hope some of UML/MDA efforts can incorporate the ideas here.