The WHY Factor. Sydney BBC Conference September 2, by Ronald G. Ross. Co-Founder & Principal, Business Rule Solutions, LLC BRSolutions.

Transcription

1 The WHY Factor Sydney BBC Conference September 2, 2014 by Ronald G. Ross Co-Founder & Principal, Business Rule Solutions, LLC BRSolutions.com Executive Editor, Business Rules Journal BRCommunity.com 1

2 About Ronald G. Ross Mr. Ross is recognized internationally as the father of business rules. He has served as Co-Chair of the annual Business Rules & Decisions Forum Conference since He was a charter member of the Business Rules Group (BRG) in the 1980s, and an editor of the two landmark BRG papers, The Business Motivation Model: Business Governance in a Volatile World (2000) and the Business Rules Manifesto (2003). He is also active in OMG standards development for business rules and business models, including SBVR. Mr. Ross is the author of ten professional books. His newest: Business Rule Concepts: Getting to the Point of Knowledge (2013), a fourth edition of his popular handbook, and Building Business Solutions: Business Analysis with Business Rules with Gladys S.W. Lam (2011), an IIBA Sponsored Handbook. An earlier work, The Business Rule Book (1994, 1997), was the seminal work in the field. Mr. Ross received his M.S. in information science from Illinois Institute of Technology, and his B.A. from Rice University. Ronald G. Ross is Co-Founder and Principal of Business Rule Solutions, LLC (BRSolutions.com). BRS provides consulting, training and methodology supporting business analysis, business rules, decision analysis, business vocabulary, and rule management. His popular seminars, the first on business rules (starting 1996) and the longest-running in the industry, are given through AttainingEdge in North America and IRM-UK in Europe. Mr. Ross co-develops IPSpeak, BRS s landmark methodology, featuring numerous innovative techniques including the popular DecisionSpeak, TableSpeak and RuleSpeak (free on RuleSpeak.com, now also in Spanish, German and Dutch). These are the latest offerings in a 40-year career that has consistently featured creative, business-driven solutions. Mr. Ross is also Executive Editor and regular columnist of BRCommunity.com and its flagship on-line publication, Business Rules Journal. Sponsored by BRS, BRCommunity.com is a non-commercial vertical community for professionals working in the field. Mr. Ross was formerly Editor of the Data Base Newsletter from 1977 to follow Ron on his blog via RonRoss.info and his 2

3 Why was the kingdom lost? For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, the horse was lost. For want of a horse, the rider was lost. For want of a rider, the battle was lost. For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost, And all for the want of a horseshoe nail. 3

4 the WHY in business rules business decisions business communication business architecture business requirements business compliance business customer experience business knowledge retention business solution strategy 4

5 the WHY in business rules business activity business event flash point business rule detection of violation customer places order agentassignment rule A customer that has placed an order must have an assigned agent. error message returned worker, customer or other end-user What error message should be returned? Note: This architecture was Reference: Business Rule Concepts 4 originally presented in th ed, 2013, Chapter 10 5

6 the two fundamental kinds of business rules decision rules behavioral rules 6

7 Why was my mortgage application rejected? 7

8 the WHY in Q-Charts (question charts) Should a mortgage application be approved? Is Capacity OK? Is Capital OK? Is Collateral OK? Are Conditions OK? Is Character OK? 5 C s of Credit Analysis 8

9 the WHY in Q-Charts (question charts) Should a mortgage application be approved? Is Collateral OK? Is Loan-to-Value OK? Is Property Type Acceptable? Is Location Acceptable? Is Guarantee Required? Reference: DecisionSpeak free on 9

10 Should a mortgage application be approved? the WHY trace Is Collateral OK? Is Location Acceptable? Decision Rule: A location must be considered unacceptable if any of the following are true. The location is: a fly-in community a single industry town near a federally designated hazard waste area Decision Rule: A location must be considered a fly-in community if any of the following are true. It lacks rail, and water connections relies entirely on bush aviation is served primarily by ice or gravel road for part of the year. 10

11 the WHY gap For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost, And all for the want of a horseshoe nail. 11

12 observation: In a decision-making process the business rules dictate what inputs you need. question: So how can you model such a process without knowing what the rules are? 12

13 decision vs. decision business analysis community larger business community 13

14 definition business rule: criterion used in business operations to guide behavior make decisions 14

15 basic principles for business architecture WHY-enabled same results from people or machines test for high-quality business rules: Can people could do it right? business-friendly test for business-friendliness: Does the dictionary support the use? 15

16 are we communicating? The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. Acks Ryan Folster George Bernard Shaw 16

17 the WHY in business requirements ability to provide routing for trucks ability to identify downtown areas ability to identify the type of material a truck carries? ability to provide special routing for trucks carrying hazardous materials 17

18 the WHY in business requirements ability to provide routing for trucks ability to identify downtown areas ability to identify the type of material a truck carries A truck carrying hazardous material must not be routed through a downtown street. ability to provide special routing for trucks carrying hazardous materials 18

19 WHY Engineering principle #1 The same complete, intelligible, unambiguous, deployable meanings (business rules & definitions) should be presented to all key audiences in the business. Meaning everybody! business managers business product developers operations staff business analysts IT professionals compliance officers external regulators A truck carrying hazardous material must not be routed through a downtown street. 19

20 assessment of current state of client's business rules support Having a WHY-enabled business architecture means showing compliance WHAT you do not HOW you go about doing it. 20

21 WHY Engineering principle #2 A WHY button should be part of every architecture and business solution. 21

22 A truck carrying hazardous material must not be routed through a downtown street. This shipment includes air bag modules. Air bag modules are hazardous material. 22

23 We re hugely hampered on a daily basis by a longterm, debilitating lack of simply knowing things. Manager, Insurance Co 23

24 WHY Engineering principle #3 The same form of WHY answers (business rules) created originally should be re-used and provided to each audience in identical form whenever the WHY button is hit. A truck carrying hazardous material must not be routed through a downtown street. 24

25 scaling up: secrets to success build a standard business glossary use the right kind of architecture learn the right expression techniques RuleSpeak, free on Tabulation of Lists in RuleSpeak : A Primer, free on Decision Tables A Primer, free on 25

26 business goals to make processes simpler, smarter, and easier to manage to achieve business agility to treat customers consistently to retain business knowledge to compete successfully in the knowledge economy Why focus on WHY? the WHY in strategy The Business Motivation Model (BMM): Business Governance in a Volatile World by the Business Rules Group - Original release: OMG release: 2007 Reference: Building Business Solutions: Business Analysis with Business Rules, by Ronald G. Ross and Gladys S.W. Lam, 2011, Chapter 4 26

27 the first man in recorded history who deemed work deserving of systematic observation and study. Peter Drucker ~~ Taylor aimed to reduce waste in material resources. Today s target: to avoid squandering waste of the mental kind. Frederick W. Taylor, father of scientific management in manufacturing, circa 1900 The Economist January 18, 2014 p. 7 27

28 WHO is a WHY Engineer? Do you care how well things are expressed? Do you think it s important to talk about WHY in business terms? Do you believe knowledge should be explicit, retained and re-used? 28

29 "If you want to show how broken something is in your organization, darken the skies with data." Neal Oswald 29

30 Ronald G. Ross Business Rule Solutions, LLC Follow Me: Blog: Be a WHY Engineer! ~~ Thank You! 30