Propagating data models

Propagating is the act of disseminating changes to a descendant stream. Propagating is the promotion of changes to one or more of the downstream models such as the enterprise models, the project models or the practitioner models. When propagating a data model, you seed an enterprise data model with the content of an Industry data model, or seed a project data model with the content of an enterprise data model, or seed a practitioner data model with the content of a project data model.

Before you begin

The delivered data model must be imported into InfoSphere Data Architect (IDA) as described in Importing data models into InfoSphere Data Architect.

About this task

Figure 1. Propagation examples
Propagation examples
This figure illustrates propagation examples that take place between an ancestor and a descendant stream during the development lifecycle:
  • IBM Industry Models version 1.0 is propagated to the Enterprise stream.
  • Enterprise version 1.0 is propagated to the Project 1 and Project 2 streams, and Enterprise version 1.4 is propagated to the Project 2 stream.
  • Project version 1.0 is propagated to the Practitioner A stream, and Project version 1.4 is propagated to the Practitioner A and Practitioner B streams.
Practitioner role
  • Data architect
  • Data modeler
Tools
  • InfoSphere Data Architect (IDA) or CA ERwin

Procedure

  1. Propagate the IBM Industry Models version to the Enterprise stream. This happens when the enterprise starts by using a version of the IBM Industry Models, and is done by the enterprise model owner.
  2. Propagate the latest enterprise version to the Enterprise stream. This happens at least once, when the project starts. This can also happen during project development, after any harvesting to retrieve the latest version of the Enterprise stream. This step is done by the project model owner.
  3. Propagate the project version to the Practitioner stream. This happens at least once, when a practitioner starts working on a project. This propagates the latest project version to the Practitioner stream. This can also happen during project development after harvesting to retrieve the latest version of the Practitioner stream. This step is done by the practitioner.