Work Product Descriptor (Artifact): Business Entity Model
The Business Entity Model defines the business entities involved in and important to the "system" in support of the business processes.
Purpose
The Business Entity Model defines the high-level business entities involved in the "system", as defined by the scope of
the modeling effort. The objective is to clearly define the business entities involved, and the (simple) relationships
between them. The definition must be valid for the defined Context and Scope, and must eliminate any ambiguity
regarding what they represent.
Relationships between entities are derived directly from analysis of the business, its activities and processes. Two
main aspects are important, the relationships supporting the business processes and activities, and the relationships
supporting the monitoring and management of the business, but these are not necessarily included at this conceptual
level. Note that generalizations, aggregations and other types of analysis are not done, and shouldn't be required when
working at this conceptual level of analysis. Only simple associations are modeled.
Business Entities are passive; that is, they do not initiate interactions on their own. A Business Entity might be used
in many different scenarios and usually outlives any single interaction. Business Entities provide the basis for
sharing information among Business Activities participating in different Business Processes.
If the business analysis is well understood by all stakeholders and the project team, the benefits of developing a
Business Entity Model are significantly diminished, however, this is rarely the case. Where this occurs, the Business
Entity Model may be sparsely defined. However, it is usually wise to develop a complete model to improve understanding
of the way the business activities work with and use the business entities.
One can choose to develop an "incomplete" Business Entity Model, focusing on explaining "things" important only to
a particular business domain or activity in question. Such a model does not include the complete information content of
the "system". This model is useful for providing a common basis with which concepts can be clarified and defined, while
limiting scope and effort. Core entities should be included along with business entities having direct relationships to
the core to provide context.
As-Is Model vs. To-Be Model
If the purpose of the business modeling effort is to do business re-engineering, one should consider building two
variants of the Business Entity Model: one that shows the current situation and one that shows the envisaged new target
situation.
The current versions of the Business Entity Model is simply an inventory of existing data models, but brought up to a
(conceptual) high-level. The entities of the model are not described in any detail. Typically brief descriptions are
sufficient. The target version of the model requires most of the work. The current data and relationships need to be
reconsidered and aligned with the new business strategy and goals.
Failure to produce this model means you run the risk that architects and designers will give only superficial attention
to the way the business operates and how entities are involved. They will do what they know best, which is to design
and build software in the absence of proper business knowledge. The result often is that the constructed systems do not
support the needs of the business.
Representation Options
UML Representation: Package stereotyped as «BPL_BEM» containing class diagrams.
A Business Entity Model may have the following properties:
Introduction: A textual description that serves as a brief introduction to the model.
Packages: The packages in the model, representing a hierarchy.
Nodes: The nodes in the model, owned by the packages stereotyped as «BPL_Entity».
Relationships: The relationships in the model, owned by the packages.
Diagrams: The diagrams in the model, owned by the packages.
The Business Entity Model is in essence a class diagram. The table below defines the minimum set of information about
the entities that must be contained within the Business Entity Model. Note that no operations are defined at this point
and only a very minimal set of attributes are defined, if any at all.
Property Name
Brief Description
UML Representation
Name
The name of the Business Entity.
The class "Name", with the class stereotyped as «BPL_Entity».
Brief Description
A brief description of the role and purpose of the Business Entity.
Tagged value, of type "short text".
Relationships
The relationships, specifically simple associations, in which the Business Entity
participates.
An association between classes stereotyped as «BPL_Association», with a name and
definition indicating the reason for / usage of the relationship. If the relationship is directional,
this should be indicated.
Attributes
The high-level (obvious) attributes of the Business Entity.
Attributes of the class.
Diagrams
Any diagrams local to the Business Entity, such as interaction, state or class
diagrams.
Owned by an enclosing package, via the aggregation "owns". As a minimum a class
diagram stereotyped as «BPL_BEM» is required.
The Business Entity Model is defined (at least a subset) very early as the team begins defining the scope of the
architecture in response to the stakeholder requests. Most things defined at this stage will go on to be described in
detail during the development of the Logical and Technical Perspectives. Note that the Business Entity Model should be
updated during subsequent phases to add high-level entities not included in the original model -- ensuring that there
is traceability to business level entities from the Logical Entity Model. This artifact is part of the Business
Perspective artifact.
