It covers the business aspects of data. This includes data administration, data modeling, meta data management, building an information architecture, and ensuring the proper role of data within a business organization. These issues are often neglected or outright ignored by many organizations. In addition to traditional data administration topics such as meta data management, repository implementation and usage, and data modeling, this year s event provided coverage of emerging topics such as XML and its impact on data management, using intranets for data model publication and dissemination, and the impact of the Internet on data and database management. One of the predominant themes of the conference was the benefit of business rules and how they are needed to bring meaning data models.
Business rules capture the knowledge of how the business operates.
A data model is incomplete. Consider, the following scenario. During a JAD session to capture information about a new system, the business user explains the characteristics of employees and the rules that pertain to them. One comment given by the user is that every employee is assigned to a job role. Later, the same user explains that retired employees are still considered employees.