A business rule is a rule that your business follows. This can be a government-imposed law, a customer requirement, or an internal guideline.
Business rules often start as simple observations. For example, "customers call toll-free numbers to place orders". During the design process they develop into more detailed expressions. For example, what information a customer supplies when placing an order or how much a customer can spend based on a credit limit.
Business rules guide and document the creation of a model. For example, the rule "an employee belongs to only one division" can help you graphically build the link between an employee and a division.
Business rules complement model graphics with information that is not easily represented graphically. For example, some rules specify physical concerns in the form of formulas and validation rules. These technical expressions do not have a graphical representation.
During intermodel generation the business rules transfer directly into the generated model where you can further specify them.
There are three ways to use business rules in a PDM:
You can apply a business rule to an object in the PDM
You can create a server expression for a business rule which can be generated to a database
A business rule expression can also be inserted in a trigger or stored procedure (see Building Triggers and Procedures)
Before you create business rules, formulate your rules by asking yourself the following questions:
What business problems do I want to address?
Are there any mandatory procedures for my system?
Do any specifications set the scope of my project?
Do any constraints limit my options?
How do I describe each of these procedures, specifications, and constraints?
How do I classify these descriptions: as definitions, facts, formulas, or validation rules?