Design Pattern - Natural Business Relationship
Purpose
Section titled “Purpose”This design pattern defines a Natural Business Relationship (NBR) entity.
Motivation
Section titled “Motivation”A NBR assists in explaining how Core Business Concepts interact together. This, in turn, clarifies how business processes are structured.
Applicability
Section titled “Applicability”This pattern can be used during information/data modeling, including conducting workshops with business subject matter experts (SMEs).
Structure
Section titled “Structure”The Natural Business Relationship (NBR) describes how the Core Business Concepts (CBCs) are related to each other in a way the business is using them, and talking about them.
If there can be multiple different ways the same concepts can be related to each other it will result in multiple business relationships.
Implementation guidelines
Section titled “Implementation guidelines”- A Natural Business Relationship is typically implemented as a ‘Link’ table using Data Vault methodology.
- When working with multiple relationships between the same concepts, it is not advisable to ‘type’ these e.g. by adding a relationship type or identifier. Instead, it is preferred to model this as separate relationships.
Considerations and consequences
Section titled “Considerations and consequences”N/A