Who are we?

About the Business Rules Group

With beginnings as a project within GUIDE International in the early 1980s, we formed an independent organization — the Business Rules Group (BRG) — in 1989.  Our membership comprises experienced practitioners, ranging from business analysis to systems analysis and methodology.  We are practitioners who work in both the public and the private sectors, in areas dealing with the Business Rules Approach.  Our charter is to formulate statements and supporting standards about the nature and structure of business rules, the relationship of business rules with the way an enterprise is organized, and the relationship of business rules with business architecture.

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Our work with Business Rules

Our initial focus was on business rules that could be implemented directly in information technology — the kinds of rule that would be defined formally in specifications of the information system (that is, 'Row 3' of the Zachman Framework).  Our first report was published as a GUIDE project publication in 1995 and then revised in 1997 and 2000.

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Our 'Business Motivation Model' paper

In 2000, we published our second major work, which deals with one important aspect of business rules from the business (Zachman 'Row 2') perspective, the 'motivation' behind the business rules of an enterprise.  Motivation tells us 'why' an enterprise has the business rules it has put in place to govern what it does with its products and services, its people, its locations, and its timing.

The 2005 update gave this paper a new title, The Business Motivation Model:  Business Governance in a Volatile World. Learn more about the ongoing work on the Business Motivation Model (BMM) with the Object Management Group (OMG).

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The Business Rules Manifesto

We finished the year 2002 by drafting the Business Rules Manifesto, principles of rule independence.  It was updated to version 2 in 2003.

The Business Rules Manifesto has been translated into over a dozen languages and is available in PDF format.

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A Standard for Business Rules — SBVR

Early in 2004, the BRG — as a member of the 'Business Rules Team' (BRT) — responded to an Object Management Group RFP entitled Business Semantics of Business Rules (BSBR).  In 2005, the BRT's final submission to that RFP, the Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR), was accepted by the Object Management Group (OMG) to move into the 'finalization' stage of their standardization process, and the completed body of work was accepted as a standard in 2007.

The latest information on the SBVR Specification is available on the OMG website.  Work on the SBVR standard continues through the activities of the SBVR Revision Task Force (RTF).  The SBVR Insider area of BRCommunity.com provides a no-nonsense, one-stop resource for up-to-date ideas about and practical applications of SBVR.

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BRG Members

Here are some of our members (past and present), attending a BRG meeting in Seattle. 

seated, left to right:  John Zachman, Ronald Ross, Warren Selkow, Terry Moriarty.

standing, left to right:  John Hall, Cheryl Estep, Allan Kolber, David Hay, John Healy, Michael Eulenberg, Keri Anderson Healy, Neal Fishman.

not shown:   Donald Chapin, Jim Funk, Markus Schacher, Harry Williford.

Taking a break during a tough work session.... 

We often met in Europe, in conjunction with the EuroRules conference. 

Our booth at the Business Rules Forum conference. 

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