The scope of USDA data element standardization includes the data requirements for all USDA Mission Areas. Minimize the cost and time expended in transforming, translating, or researching the meaning of related data elements. The ADRS will be expanded over time to support all components of USDA's Data Administration Program. The concepts discussed in this chapter are fundamental to the discovery, design, and definition of standard data elements. As discussed in Chapter 1, the data required by an organization to perform its mission can be represented graphically in data models.
Data models contain data entities, their attributes, and relationships between data entities.
Data elements are discovered and designed through data modeling and analysis of data entity attributes. Data modeling also ensures that data element definitions reflect functional policy and represent USDA's data requirements. A data entity attribute becomes a standard data element as a result of standardizing and documenting selected characteristics that describe data semantics, data format, and sets of valid data values. The following concepts should be well understood before attempting to apply the rules for data element design, definition, and naming described in the next chapters. Data can be effectively shared only to the extent that semantics are understood in a precise and unambiguous way by all who share the data.