What is a Data Model?
A Data Model (aka Information Model) consists of:
- Representations of things (entities*)
- Abstractions, and not the thing itself
- E.g., a customer entity is not an individual customer
- We would speak of (model) “forest”, and not the “Ardennes”
- Properties of things (attributes)
- Descriptions of an entity (again, abstractions)
- We would speak of (model) a “birth date”, and not “July 4, 1776”
- Associations among things (relationships)
- How entities relate to each other, often as part of a process
- E.g., a Customer entity has a Purchase relationship to a Product entity
- Relationships can have attributes, too
- E.g., the Purchase has a Sales Date and Total Cost
It is a “picture” of how these things are related
- And identifies the things important to a business
*The term “feature” is often used in the MCG&I community.