Session 10: Using Reference Objects
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When you create a new workspace, a reference object project is automatically created as well. There are six types of reference objects used in ER/Studio Business Architect. We already discussed creating and using Business Elements and Domains, so this section covers more general information on Reference Objects.
- External Data Objects: External Data Objects are “generic” data artifacts that can be used to show the relationship and impact between data and the activities of the process. External Data Objects are not entity relationship modeling artifacts, but an abstraction of these objects. You can import or create new external data objects and then link those objects to business process or conceptual elements.
- Business Elements: Business Elements are often used by business users to document their list of “terms and/or definitions”. While from a business user’s point-of-view, this may be no more than a list of terms, they can be used by a modeler to seed attributes of semantically-rich models. A business element can be bound to different business attributes across conceptual models to enforce naming and definition standards. An organization can achieve a common meaning and lineage around core business concepts such as “customer”, “customer identifier”, “trade”, etc. by using the business element concept.
- Business Rules: Business Rules are policies, practices, or formulas related to the operation and enforcement of business practices.
- Business Units: Business Units are organizational areas within or external to an enterprise, for example, Human Resources, Sales, Accounting, etc.
- Domains: Domains are reusable attribute templates that promote consistent domain definitions such as name and data type properties.
- Stewards: Stewards are people or organizations responsible or associated with model elements, for example: DBA, Auditor, Jeffrey Smith, etc.
Proceed to Session 11: Using the Grid Editor