Domain Specific Language Based on the SBVR Standard for Expressing Business Rules

Abstract

This paper presents a Domain Specific Language (DSL) for expressing business rules in a business-friendly language and sufficiently formal in order to be machine-processed. The core feature of this DSL is that its semantic leverages the Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) standard which is a metamodel for specifying the semantic models of business using natural language. Our DSL provides business stakeholders with a custom editor with auto-completion, automatic highlighting, content assist, error handling and an outline view on the model. It is built on a parser generated from a grammar which defines the controlled and structured syntax to guide a non technical user to express declarative business rules in SBVR Structured English (SSE). Thus our DSL can bridge the gap between business and Information Technology (IT) experts by allowing them to share the same semantics around the business model in order to minimize the loss of semantics and avoid the miscommunication due to the ambiguities of natural language.