Rules Discovery

The key to successful rules discovery is that all rules must be contextualized in specific business decisions.  This statement may be seen as heretical by those who have signed up to the Business Rules Manifesto, but my concern here is with the practicalities of delivering decision services to a tight budget and timescale, not with the quixotic task of modelling the behaviour of an entire organization.  So my advice is this:  do not try to define universal rules which apply across all business processes and activities; establish only the specific rules required to make each decision which is in scope.