The Data Model Resource Book, Volume 3: Universal Patterns for Data Modeling

Silverston c03.tex V2 - 11/21/2008 2:59am Page 71

CHAPTER

3

Using Roles: How Parties

Are Involved

‘‘Who is the ship-to customer on this invoice?’’ ‘‘Who is the project manager of

this project?’’ ‘‘Who was the counterparty for this stock trade?’’ Each of these

questions has two things in common. First, they are questions about a party,

that is, ‘‘who is...?’’ Secondly, the ‘‘who’’ is always about how a party (person

or organization) is involved in some other entity. In other words, what role is

the party playing within the context of a business activity or in the context of

another entity (for example, the party’s role in the context of an order, product,

or some other entity)?

In Chapter 2 we discussed the importance of capturing the roles that parties

play within the context of the enterprise as a whole. Recording information

about customers, suppliers, partners, employees, logistics service providers,

health care providers, subsidiaries, and counterparties is important to suc-

cessfully understanding your total enterprise. But it is not sufficient just to

capture these declarative roles. The context in which a person or organization

is involved with specific business actions or other entities in your enterprise

also needs to be captured. For example, an organization may be declared as

a customer in an enterprise in general, as seen in Chapter 2, but within the

context of an order the organization