An essential language for declarative business rules

Abstract

Business rules are an important concept in todays business operations. Students in a Business Management and IT curriculum must learn the basics of business rules by capturing and describing the declarative rules that apply in a restricted business context. Learning to specify rules in exact detail is hampered by the lack of rule languages suited for instructional purposes. Natural language or semiformal languages are too versatile and imprecise, whereas most formal languages presuppose advanced knowledge of mathematics and set theory. We describe an essential language for denoting declarative business rules. The language provides just five basic statements which are closely matched to the architectural structure of declarative business rules. The expressive power of the language enables to capture rules very precisely. The clear and simple structure of the language is well suited to learning and understanding. Hence, it is expected that it will improve the learning curve of students in mastering the basics of declarative business rules.