CEISAR - Center of Excellence in Enterprise Architecture > Describe the Enterprise > Entity Rules > Chapter 3 : Thumb rules to define Entities

Chapter 3 : Thumb rules to define Entities

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Do not detail the data Model before having built a complete Entity Model.

Start defining Static data (referential data like Actors, Organization, Products), then go to more dynamic data.

Define owner relations.

Prefer relations between instances of the same Entities rather than building new Entities.

Prefer a multi-status Entity rather than N Entities

Provide identifier for each Entity

Start with concrete Entities before abstract Entities

For international definitions, reuse same Entities

Start with Parent Entity before Child Entity

Manage Synonyms (customer/client, contract/policy, ...)

Manage Homonyms

Do not mix inheritance (« is ») and relation (« has »)

Define relations with «creation process»

Do not mix Entities and Business rules

Split containers and contents

Check that existing data find a place in the new Entity Model

Master Data Management (MDM)

IT Governance

Business Process Management (BPM)

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)

Enterprise Architecture

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Component Based Architecture (CBA)