Chapter 3 Building a Requirements Model

Business Rules (RQM)

A business rule is a written statement specifying what a model must contain or how it must be structured to support business needs.

A business rule is a rule that your business follows. It could be a government-imposed law, a customer requirement, or an internal guideline.

In the case of the Requirements Model, a business rule should be used as a super requirement, i.e. a requirement defined for requirements. For instance, a business rule could be a methodological rule for writing requirements.

Business rules are not available by default in a requirements model. You must activate them through the creation of an extended model definition.

To activate business rules in an RQM:

1. Select Model→Extended Model Definitions, to open the List of Extended Model Definitions and click the Add a Row tool to create a new extended model definition.
2. Click Apply and then click the Properties tool to open the property sheet of the new extended model definition.
   
3. In the right pane, type a name and a code for the extended model definition.
4. In the left pane, right-click the Profile category and select Add Metaclasses in the contextual menu to open the Metaclass Selection dialog box.
5. Click the PdCommon sub-tab and select BusinessRule.
   
6. Click OK to return to the property sheet. The BusinessRule entry is displayed within the Profile category.
   
7. Click OK to return to the List of Extended Model Definitions.
8. Click OK to return to the model. The new extended model definition is displayed in the Browser tree view, and you can now create business rules and attach them to requirements.

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