PRJ566 Project Planning and Management Lecture: Business Rules

What is a Business Rule? …a business rule is a statement that defines or

constrains some aspect of the business.  It is intended to assert business structure, or to control or influence the behavior of the business.

CASE STUDY RFERENCE All information used in this presentation is derived

from the following website:

http://www.businessrulesgroup.org/first_paper/br01c0.htm

EU-Rent's car rental business (http://www.businessrulesgroup.org/first_paper/br01ad.htm)

CASE STUDY RFERENCE The EU-Rent business:

Background: Has 1000 branches in towns in several countries.  At

each branch, cars (classified by car group) are available for rental.  Each branch has a manager and a number of booking clerks who handle rentals. 

CASE STUDY RFERENCE The EU-Rent business:

Rentals  Most rentals are by advance reservation.  The rental period and the car group are specified at the time of reservation.  EU-Rent also accepts immediate ('walk-in') rentals, if cars are available.  At the end of each day, cars are assigned to reservations for the following day.  If more cars have been requested than are available in a car group at a branch, the branch manager may ask other branches if they have cars they can transfer. 

CASE STUDY RFERENCE The EU-Rent business:

Returns  Cars rented from one branch of EU-Rent may be returned to a different branch.  The renting branch must ensure that the car has been returned to some branch at the end of the rental period.  If a car is returned to a branch other than the one that rented it, ownership of the car is assigned to the new branch. 

CASE STUDY RFERENCE The EU-Rent business:

Servicing  EU-Rent also has service depots, each serving several branches.  Cars may be booked for maintenance at any time, provided that the service depot has capacity on the day in question.  For simplicity, only one booking per car per day is allowed.  A rental or service may cover several days.   

CASE STUDY RFERENCE The EU-Rent business:

Customers  A customer can have several reservations but only one car rented at a time.  EU-Rent keeps records of customers, their rentals, and bad experiences (such as late return, problems with payment, and damage to cars).  This information is used to decide whether to approve a rental. 

POLICY a general statement of direction for an enterprise.

An example of a policy for EU-Rent's car rental business might be:

"We only rent cars in legal, roadworthy condition to our customers."

BUSINESS RULE STATEMENTS EU Business Rule Examples:

Rentals Rentals can be made through a reservation or ‘walk-in’ A customer must be registered to make a reservation If a rental request does not specify a particular car group or model, the default is

group A (the lowest-cost group) End date of a rental must be before any scheduled maintenance for a car 10% of a group quota for a branch must be reserved for the next day’s walk-in rentals An upgrade to the next group of car can be made if a customers rental request can not

be satisfied An assigned car not picked up 90 minutes after the scheduled pick-up time may be

released for a walk-in rental Returns

Cars should be checked on return from each rental, and on transfer between branches Vehicles must be returned with a full tank of gas Assessed damages to a car are to be charged to the customers credit card

BUSINESS RULE STATEMENTS EU Business Rule Examples:

Servicing Under any of the following conditions the car should be scheduled for service or repair:

accumulated mileage since the last service is greater than 5000, the brakes are not satisfactory, the exhaust is noisy or emitting fumes, there is any damage to body work (apart from superficial dents and scratches), lights

or glass, there are any significant fluid leaks.

Customer Can only rent one car at a time Customers may not be permitted to rent if:

They returned a vehicle late Did not pay for their rental satisfactorily They have damaged a car

Customer must posses a valid driver’s license and be over the age of 25 Customer must acquire insurance

Examples

Each order must have a shipping charge A library customer cannot borrow more than 10

books If stock drops to below the minimum shelf level

then the system generates a purchase order If a customer purchases between 10 and 20

books, s/he gets a 15% discount If payment is not received within 30 days of the

invoice date then the account is delinquent

More Examples Video System:

A customer can rent up to a maximum of 6 videos at one time

The rating of the movie must be validated against the age of the customer placing the rental

Scheduling Youth Hockey: Players under the age of 14 can not have a game

scheduled past 8:00 p.m. Games that do not finish before 11:30p.m. are to have

the balance of the game scheduled at a later date/time