by Ronald G. Ross, Co-Founder, Business Rule Solutions, LLC

Don’t start an IT project until the company has written a clear set of rules about the way it does business.

Mr. Ross is offering his internationally acclaimed public seminars on Business Rules in Chicago, the week of June 25-29 through AttainingEdge (www.AttainingEdge.com). The week includes a 1-day event on Enterprise Design jointly with John Zachman and Roger Burlton, two of the world’s foremost requirements experts.

Recently, we were talking to the chief software developer at a large client organization about progress on a major reengineering effort there. Our concern was whether the project team members could meet a deadline some nine months out for delivering a large-scale prototype. We’d just spent several intensive months developing a comprehensive business model, and they still had several months of system design left to complete.

This chief developer is very sharp—not one to commit to any answer lightly. For the longest while, he said nothing, lost in thought. Finally, eyeing the detailed business diagrams plastered on the walls all around, he said, “If we had already started coding, I would say we had no chance at all. But since we haven’t started coding yet, I’d say the chances are pretty good.”