INTEGRATING BUSINESS RULES INTO THE WEB DEVELOPMENT PROCESS JEHAD NAJJAR ABDALGHANI MUSHTAHA Olga De Troyer Dept. of Computer Science WISE, Dept. of Computer Science, WISE, Dept. of Computer Science, K.U.Leuven Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Celestijnenlaan 200A, Pleinlaan 2, Pleinlaan 2, 3001 Leuven, Belgium 1050 Brussel, Belgium 1050 Brussel, Belgium jehad.najjar@cs.kuleuven.ac.be abdalghani.mushtaha@vub.ac.be Olga.DeTroyer@vub.ac.be Tel. +32-1- 6327 660 Tel. +32-2-629 3713 Tel. +32-2-629 3504 Fax: +32-1-6327 996 Fax: +32-2-629 3525 Fax: +32-2-629 3525 ABSTRACT: In this paper we propose an approach to integrate business rules into the web site development process. This approach is given as an extension of the Web Site Design Method (WSDM) [8, 9], developed previously in our group. In our approach the business rules are integrated throughout the phases of the web development process defined in WSDM methodology. In the first phase business rules are observed as business policies of the enterprise. In the second phase business rules are documented and mapped to the different audiences which are defined in the audience modeling phase of WSDM. In the third phase business rules are modeled conceptually using ORM (Object Role Modeling)[10]and RIDL (Reference and IDea Language[7]). The business rules are defined on top of the conceptual model of the web site. KEYWORDS: Web design, Web methodology, WSDM. 1. INTODUCTION AND MOTIVATION: There has been a tremendous increase in the usage of the Internet to serve our daily needs and operations, e.g. accessing or submitting course material at the university, buying or renting a car, reserving a room in a hotel, booking a flight ticket, etc. These kinds of businesses require some rules and constraints. Therefore when a web designer develops a web application he has to take into consideration these rules and polices. Furthermore, a good web site or web application should satisfy the customer needs and the designer should also take into consideration the usability of the web site (e.g. the web site should be simple, understandable, all information should be reachable in an efficient way, etc). To achieve all of this the web developer needs to be skilled and experienced. However experience and skills may differ considerably from one developer to another. A solid methodology for web development (also called Web Engineering) could overcome this. This methodology should also support the business polices and constraints relevant for the application.. We propose a strategy for web site design that on the one hand will result in a web site that satisfy the needs of the customers and on the other hand will cover and deal with all the business policies and operations. To achieve this, business rules must be discovered, documented and modeled and this as early as possible in the web site development process. Contrary to existing methodologies [2-4, 6], which all start and focus on data available in the organization or on the structure or data of the organization, WSDM is an audience-driven methodology. It is a powerful methodology; it starts from the requirements of the audience, documents, and models them and let them drive the structure of the web site. However, WSDM [8, 9] did not consider explicitly business rules and constraints while developing the web site. The method could be improved if the business rules were integrated through out the life cycle of the web development. In this paper, we extended WSDM to take business rules and constraints into consideration during the development of a web site. In the first phase business rules are observed as business policies. Business policies are the general policies that the company has. Then they evolve into the second level as business rules. In this phase, business rules are documented and mapped to the audience (users) classes. At the third level business rules are modeled conceptually and intergraded in the web site conceptual model. Finally business rules are implemented using any data base application. By considering the business rules at the early stages of the web development process, traceability of the model during development is increased. This approach can cope with changes in the specifications during the development. Furthermore, it increases the maintainability and the effectiveness of the website. This will lead to successful web applications in general and e-business in particular