Conceptual Data Model
The conceptual data model is a structured business view of the data required to support business processes, record business events, and track related performance measures. This model focuses on identifying the data used in the business but not its processing flow or physical characteristics. This model’s perspective is independent of any underlying business applications. For example, it allows business people to view sales data, expense data, customers, and products—business subjects that are in the integrated model and outside of the applications themselves.
The conceptual data model represents the overall structure of data required to support the business requirements independent of any software or data storage structure. The characteristics of the conceptual data model include:
•An overall view of the structure of the data in a business context.
•Features that are independent of any database or physical storage structure.
•Objects that may not ever be implemented in physical databases. There are some concepts and processes that will not find their way into models, but they are needed for the business to understand and explain what is needed in the enterprise.
•Data needed to perform business processes or enterprise operations.
The conceptual data model is a tool for business and IT to define:
•Data requirements scope.
•Business terms and measures across different business units and those that are agreed upon for enterprise-wide usage.
•Names, data types, and characteristics of entities and their attributes.
⠀ Business Intelligence Guidebook, 2015