Evaluation of approaches to business rules maintenance in enterprise information systems

Enterprise information systems maintain a significant number of business rules defining complex business processes and data constraints. Conventional frameworks distribute such rules over multiple layers, making consistent rule location discovery difficult. This lack of rule centrality results in complicated and even error-prone development and maintenance as future application changes may lead to inconsistencies.In this paper, we consider these aspects of business rule definitions in various software design approaches from the software metrics perspective. We research several design approaches in a case study, compare their qualities regarding business rule definitions/maintenance, and demonstrate the difficulties with these approaches. The results of the study indicate that conventional approaches are insufficient in this area. Future design approaches that involve separation of concerns provide mechanisms to address the inefficiency.