Re: Definition of the word "business" terms?

I've noticed some confusion in this area as well. I'll give you my interpretation of the mentioned terms.

Business Data:

First off, what most people consider data I call data elements. The distinction is that data are the actual values eg. (800) 555-1212 where data elements are the generic representations for the data eg. PHONE NUMBER. Keep in mind that "data" is the plural of "datum". Data are distinct from information when raw or devoid of context. "Business" data would then be simply data used by the business. I agree with the rest of your definition and think most people would.

Business Rules and Business Logic:

In his book on IDEF1X, Tom Bruce defines business rules as "...assertions representing constraints on the behavior of the business." This definition makes sense to me, it is what I learned when I entered the field of data modeling. In application to data, business rules would define how the data are organized and their interrelationships to include CRUD constraints or other "data quality" attributes.

Therefore I lump what you define business rules and logic into just business rules. From my perspective, that of ER style data modeler, I see no need to distinguish between the two.

Business Object:

Similar to data, you can treat Objects as individual enities with their own properties. And like data, objects become usefull when their relationships with other objects are defined. Objects are at a higher level than data in the sense that objects contain data, state, and methods as you have defined (using the OO definition of objects). So what is a business object? It seems to me that yes there could be an object for account, for manufacturing, ect... However, for each of these "vertical markets", there could exist additional business objects (objects used by the business) used to model operations within the market.

Eric Bohn Received on Wed Dec 24 1997 - 00:00:00 CST