Data Model
A
data model is a
modeling work product that models
a business enterprise, application, framework, or component in
terms of its data.
The typical objectives of a data model are to:
- Analyze data.
- Document data.
The typical benefits of a data model include:
- It is used to implement both
data components and
software components.
- It helps estimate the scope, size, and complexity of any
database management systems.
- It can be used to develop functional test suites of test
cases.
The typical contents of a data model are:
- Data Definitions:
- Entity Relationship Attribute Diagrams
The typical stakeholders of a data model are:
- Producer:
- Evaluator:
- Approvers:
- Maintainers:
- Users:
-
Requirements Team, which uses the use case model to
analyze requirements and specify them in the system
requirements specification.
A data model is typically developed during the following
phases:
A data model can typically be started if the following
preconditions hold:
The typical inputs to a data model include:
- Work Products:
- Stakeholders:
- This is a living model that is developed incrementally
and iteratively in parallel with other work products (e.g.,
system requirements specification).
- Different parts of this model are due at different times:
- Context specifications before corresponding use case
specifications.
- Actor specifications before corresponding use case
diagrams.
- Some parts of this model are typically mandatory (actor
specifications) whereas some parts are optional (activity
diagrams).
- Identify and reuse use cases by using a combination of:
- The standard function to use case mapping
- The major functions listed in the
application vision statement
- Reusable requirements based on functional areas (e.g.,
Content Management).
A data model is typically constrained by the following
conventions:
- Business enterprise data model
- Application data model
- Framework data model
- Component data model