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48 Enterprise Data Governance

In the first phase of the transformation, it is possible to
act without modifying the existing software in depth. It is
enough to neutralize certain components of the software in
order to replace them by a call to the rules management
system, the behavior of which remains identical to that of
the original software. Gradually, a company realizes its
software assets through the rules repository. Even though
the functional behavior of the system does not change, the
business regains the knowledge via the rules management.
The administration functions brought by the rules
repository, in particular version and context management,
enable a revitalization of the IT system. Business users can
write different rules depending on the use contexts of the
software, for example whether a subsidiary, a regional
agency, the HQ, a partner, or a regulation version, etc.
Without this rules management, only IT specialists are able
to act on the system in order to personalize its behavior,
depending on whether it is a subsidiary or HQ, by directly
modifying the software. With the rules repository, the
software assets can be assessed by a business rules
inventory, under the responsibility of business teams.

The rules repository is even more strategic when it is
coupled with a data repository. This coupling enables the use
of business rules across the whole IT system, in a secure
manner, since the BRMS benefits from a unique and reliable
access point to reference and master data. Therefore, the
rules repository exploits the data repository during the
authoring of rules and during their utilization:
– during the authoring of a rule, its author must often
choose between data values in the repositories to describe its
behavior. For example, for the rule “If the Type of Product is
equal to ‘EXT-PARC-01’”, the value of the type of product
must be selected in the product catalogue repository, in the
correct version. This repository is managed by the MDM
system. Consequently, the business user or IT staff member
who authors this rule also has access to the MDM system;