Business Data Model

The Business Data Model (BDM) is a conceptual data model that specifies the third-normal-form data structures that are required to represent the concepts that are defined in the business terms. BDM does not contain technical information, such as primary keys, foreign keys, technical attributes for history support. BDM provides an enterprise-wide, generic, and flexible data representation for the design of operational or informational systems, serving as an overall reference point for business and IT.

The main characteristics of BDM:
  • Enterprise-wide and applies to the industry, independently of line-of-business considerations
  • Understood by business and IT professionals, providing a powerful and precise means of communication, and helping to bridge the innate gap between business and IT perspectives
  • Independent of organizational or technological considerations, providing a stable basis for business modeling
  • Provides a flexible view of the business that can be customized according to specific requirements
  • Provides a strong starting point for analysis and design of operational or informational systems, that potentially use design models, such as:
    • Operational data store (ODS)
    • Data warehouse model
    • Service model
    • Component design model
  • Mapped to the upstream business term concepts it represents
  • Downstream design models are mapped to BDM

Typically, BDM is a logical-only model, which is not expected to be physicalized.