About Data Modeling with IDEF1X
Modeling data consists of identifying management objects (entities) and the associations or relationships between these objects, considered significant for representation of company activity.
IDEF1X is used to produce a graphical information model which represents the structure and semantics of information within an environment or system or an enterprise. Use of this standard permits the construction of semantic data models which may serve to support the management of data as a resource, the integration of information systems, and the building of computer databases.
A principal objective of IDEF1X is to support integration. The IDEF1X approach to integration focuses on the capture, management, and use of a single semantic definition of the data resource referred to as a “Conceptual Schema.” The “conceptual schema” provides a single integrated definition of the data within an enterprise which is unbiased toward any single application of data and is independent of how the data is physically stored or accessed. The primary objective of this conceptual schema is to provide a consistent definition of the meanings and interrelationship of data which can be used to integrate, share, and manage the integrity of data. A conceptual schema must have three important characteristics:
• It must be consistent with the infrastructure of the business and be true across all application areas.
• It must be extendable, such that, new data can be defined without altering previously defined data.
• It must be transformable to both the required user views and to a variety of data storage and access structures.
The basic constructs of an IDEF1X model are:
• Things about which data is kept, eg., people, places, ideas, events, etc., represented by a box;
• Relationships between those things, represented by lines connecting the boxes; and
• Characteristics of those things represented by attribute names within the box.