Quite often I run into a situation where I ask myself:
- Why I need to define a particular object?
- What I neet to add to the object to make it complete?
- What will make it complete?
- What is mandatory for an object to have?
- What can be treated as optional?
- How do I classify what is mandatory and what is optional for the object?
My approach towards solving these question is what is the bare minimum requirement for the entity to exist. Like for a person to exist in this world we need First Name and Last Name. Rest other details attached to the person is based on where we need them. But name is something which is unique to the person in the system.
But then again it is also driven by where the entity is used. A person's date of birth and Joining Date is mandatory if the person is part of an organization. But they are optional if the person is being treated as Supplier or Customer.
I am still exploring on this topic and hoping to find an answer soon.
Until Next Time :)
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Definition of an Entity
Posted by Samir Kumar Mishra at 10/11/2006
Labels: Knowledge Representation , Semantics
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comments:
Sirji,
What do you want to acheive here?
Def. of an Entity is relative to the needs and where it is being used.
i doubt if an absolute formal minimal requirement can be arrived at as a spec. for one entity, let alone for *any* modelable entity.
May be you are looking at devising a flexible system to handle the definition of entities & entity creation/management?
cheers
-sundar
Post a Comment