> The data designer does not answer the question of when a 
> business rule is *legitimate*.   It simply is not their shot to call.   It
is 
> their job to determine how to meet the business requirement as determined 
> by the business owner/manager as long as that requirement is within legal 
> constraints.  

Actually, I don't believe it's a good model that IT people blindly do what
the business tells them to do, and I don't believe successful businesses
work this way. If the IT people are good at implementing IT systems then
they also have the brainpower to design improved business processes (perhaps
to take advantage of IT potential, but perhaps just because they have the
right kind of thought pattern). 

I remember when I was a student one of the computer science faculty members
(John Larmouth, I think) implementing a program to automate the complex
rules for University Senate elections, and ending up proposing an improved
set of rules which were duly incorporated into the University Statutes. I
think that's the way things should work.


Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/