Business Entities

Go Up to Conceptual Model Elements

A Business Entity is a high-level “container” for businesses/organizations. They can stand alone or can be containers for other Business Entities or Business Attributes.

• Business Entities can be expanded or collapsed. You can then view or hide other Business Entities and Business Attributes within the parent element. Right-click in a Business Entity in the Diagram View and select Show as Expanded. This is a toggle command.
• You can also elect to hide or show the expansion control in the Business Entity in the Diagram View. Right-click the Business Entity and select Show Expansion Control. Depending on the state of the element (expanded or contracted), a plus or minus symbol is placed in the bottom right-hand corner of the element. This is a toggle command. You can also choose to show or hide the expansion control as a global preference.
• When a Business Entity is placed in the Diagram View, the label appears vertically centered. Once you add a child element the label is then relocated to the top center of the Business Entity.
• Once other Business Entities have been placed within a Business Entity these child items appear on the Impact Analysis Tab under the “Heritage” () heading. You can view this Impact Analysis Report in the Property View for the Business Entity.
• Business Entities contained in a Subject Area in a diagram are owned by the model, not the subject area.

Note: When a Business Entity is placed within a Subject Area, the Subject Area is automatically mapped to the entity and appears under the Mappings () heading in the Impact Analysis Report.

The following example shows two Business Entities containing their related Business Attributes for a shipping company. The two entities are connected with an Interaction showing a many-to-many relationship.

Note: To select multiple elements in the Business Entity, hold down the ALT key to invoke the marquee cursor.