Business Logic

The purpose of this chapter is to formulate a proper definition of business process logic, or, if we call it a little shorter, business logic.

Business Logic

In the chapter “Business Process Modeling” we looked at a UML Activity Diagram, which at a high level defined the work process of a dental clinic receptionist. The following UML Activity Diagram describes the same process in more detail:

Following the established business process, the receptionist does not make any decisions while performing the “Patient registration” and “The patient visit finalization” activities. In contrast, after completing the activities associated with the “Patient identification” and “Appointment scheduling” steps, the receptionist needs to decide what to do next using business rules.

In the UML state diagram, a fragment of which you can see below, these decisions are indicated by a fork transition, which can end in one of the target states depending on the decision made. To make the right decision, the data collected in the current state of the business process must be analyzed in accordance with business rules and, as a result of this analysis, the target state of the business process must be selected. Business Logic impersonates this process:

For example, a dental office information system performs several activities to identify a patient, one of which is “Searching patient’s data”. After performing the “Searching patient’s data” activity, the information system Business Logic analyzes the search result and selects one of the target states in accordance with the business rule that states: Select “The patient’s data are not found” state if search returns no result:

So, the real meaning or the right definition of Business Logic is:

Business Logic is the process of selecting the target state of a business process according to business rules, performed after completing the analysis of the data collected in the current state of the business process.

Table of Content Introduction into Business Process Previous: States and Transitions Next: Data Processing Logic