Re: Definition of the word "business" terms?

Jim Gross (jmgross_at_worldnet.att.net) wrote:

: M Sweger wrote:
 

: >
: > Business Data -- this is a piece or set of data that represents
: > the business operation but doesn't have any
: > defining relationship or validation with
: > respect to each other until validated and organized
: > by Business rules and business logic in the form
: > of an application representing the vertical
: > business market which defines the business
: > enterprise.
 

: This term is also used to distinguish between "business data" and "infrastructure
: data". The former is information which is of interest and recognizable to the
: business. The latter is typically control information which is usually generated
: by the application and used to organize and/or control operation of the
: application.
 

: >
: >
: > Business Rule -- this is a condition that validates the data
: > necessary to perform the intended business
: > operation. Some examples would be, validating
: > that data for a field on the computer screen
: > is not empty, is numeric/alphabetic, is a valid
: > code (i.e. part number) etc. So essentially
: > validates data!
 

: Validation is but one category of business rule. A business rule in the full
: sense is any executable code which operates upon business data and/or returns
: results which are or affect business data.
 

: >
: >
: > Business Logic -- this is the process steps that take a set of
: > "business rules" and validates or controls
: > the flow of steps necessary to perform the
: > intended business operation. An example
: > would be, If rule1 is true then do rule2 and
: > rule3. So essentially controls the flow
: > of business rule(s).
 

: The notion of business logic is again, in my experience, most often used to
: distinguish itself from logic (programming) which performs non-business functions
: (e.g.: utility functions, infrastructure and the like such as printer drivers,
: data communication functions and the like.)
 

: >
: >
: > Business Object -- this is also defined as a "domain object", whereby
: > an object contains state (the validated business
: > data as rules) operated on by the business logic
: > which are the methods used in OO. In addition
: > an object(s) working together represent a vertical
: > business market; however, a set of different
: > business object(s) working together define the
: > business enterprise. An example would be,
: > a business object that represents the accounting
: > department and another business object represents
: > manufacturing.....; both of these business objects
: > for each vertical market then define your business
: > enterprise.

After a little more reading and thought I forgot to mention some other terms that seem to get talked about alot. Again trying to distinguish a clear definition from the rest of similar terminalogy is tough.

	Business Event -- I have no clue. Perhaps this is just
			  a control signal as modeled in the dataflow 
			  paradigm.


	Business Process -- Some Corba books say this is the control of
		            business flow similar to the definition used
			    for "Business Logic". Also that it specifies
		 	    the interactions and relationships between
			    the "Business Entities"; however, it seems
			    that this could be done also for "Business
			    Objects". Therefore, the "Business Process"
			    seems to at a ver high level of abstraction
			    vs. at the layering implied by the ordering
			    of definitions here.


	Business Entity - Is a collection of "Business Objects" that
			   pertains to one specific facet of a Business
			   Enterprise. I.E. the accounting department
			   application s/w vs, the marketing department.


	Business Enterprise -- Is a set of "Business Entities" that
			     comprise the overall operation of running
			    a business for from top to bottom. I.E.
			    All the different departments (and associated
			    application s/w) working together to sell
			    or provide a service.

As I've noticed one can see that the "Business" term and its definitions seems to be a layering of concepts similar to s/w abstraction. Some of these concepts seem to be analagous to ERD diagrams (as some people have indicated) as you try to perform a mapping to a model. The only question is is there a variation of the ERD diagrams and modeling techniques for ODBMS vs. RDBMS that would be more applicable to OO (Object Oriented) techniques as one tries to objectize their application and yet be able to map it to an ODBMS or RDBMS?

        Another question you could ask is that using these definitions and any others can we draw a diagram that shows the layering and relationships such that it represents the Logical(problem) space and the equivalent mapping to the Physical(solution) space based on ready known models such as OO, ERD and dataflow?

        Thanks for anymore input.

--
	Mike,
	mikesw_at_whiterose.net