System development/Terminology/Semantics


 * See also: Semantics

Semantic model
When you start making an information system it's a best practice to create a semantic model. A semantic model consists of concepts, which have a relation. In the example below you see the semantic model of a car administration system. You see the following concepts: Car, Contract, Employee, Lease company, Manager, Request.



Data model
After you created the semantic model you decide which concepts (from your semantic model) will be in the system. For instance for the manager and the employee you can create an objecttype PERSON or EMPLOYEE. How will your system find the manager? You could add a property 'manager' to objecttype EMPLOYEE or you can add a new objecttype ORGANIZATIONAL UNIT. You also have to decide about which properties you want to register. For the car you could add the following properties:
 * Colour: reference to data item 'Colour'
 * License plate number: text
 * Model: reference to data item 'CarModel'
 * Owner: reference tot data item 'Person'