Using UML state diagrams for visual modeling of business rules

Recently, in response to growing market demand, several different techniques of business rules representation have been created. Some of them try to present business rules in a visual manner. However, due to the complexity of the problem, the graphic representations that are proposed seem to be far from perfection. In this paper we would like to describe how UML state diagrams might be used for business rules formulation and visual modeling. The strength of this approach relies on reusing classical notions provided by UML 2.0, e.g. an action, guard, etc., in a way which is close to theirs original meaning.