Conceptual Model Elements

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The table below lists the objects used in creating conceptual models.

Artifact	Palette Icon	Description
Subject Area		A Subject Area is an abstraction of a particular functional area identified in some manner by the business, for example a Sales Organization or Customer. It can also be a functional application area (CRM system, etc.). It can be visualized as a model object and/or used as a grouping mechanism containing other business entities.
Business Entities		Represents a core “object” of the business. Similar in concept to a logical entity in Logical Data Modeling, but at a higher level of abstraction. The audience is often the business user, not a technical data architect. Business Entities are used by data modelers and business users to get basic requirements and descriptions from the business.
Business Attributes		The properties of a business entity, for example, an employee identification number.
Interaction		Interactions represent an action, process, or transaction between two objects. For example, “Customer” -> “Reviews Status of” -> “Orders”. They are often expressed as action verb phrases.
Relationship		A relationship between two things representing a loose coupling or association. This is only supported between like object types, for example a Business Entity to a Business Entity. There are four different types of relationships available: Generic, Many-to-Many, Many-to-One, and One-to-Many.   You will get an error message if you attempt to create a relationship between a subject area and a business entity.
Group		Use the Group symbol to visually organize elements.