Relationship Definition and Representation Relationships between managed objects can be shown either explicitly or implicitly. In either case, names of managed objects are used to identify the participants in a relationship.
Explicit relationships are part of the definition of the managed objects making up the relationship.
Each managed object participating in a relationship will have an attribute that names all of other managed objects in that relationship. For example in a one to one relationship, each managed object will have an attribute whose value is the name of the other managed object. This allows the relationship to be identified from either managed object. Implicit relationships are shown with special relationship objects. A relationship object is a managed object which is defined with attributes that name all of the managed objects making up the relationship.