Conceptual data layer

The conceptual data layer is the highest level of organization in the Guided Stewardship operating model.
It represents context-independent data structures within an organization, the overarching structure of objects and elements within an organization’s data landscape. It is where you define concepts, such as Customer and Product, and their component fields, without direct reference to system-specific implementations.

The conceptual data layer consists of the following asset types:

• Line of Business
• Data Domain
• Data Concept

Note The organization of the conceptual data layer is based on many-to-many relationships, which makes the conceptual data layer more concise and flexible than tree-like arrangements that rely strictly on one-to-one and one-to-many relationships.

Example In this example, 3 lines of business group both the Customer and Product data domains. Each data domain groups several data concepts. In this case, both data domains group the Name and ID Number data concepts. This is possible because Name and ID Number, as Data Concept assets, represent the concepts abstractly, not as specific implementations. A Customer can have a Name and a Product can have a Name, but you need only one Data Concept asset to represent the idea of “name”.

Tip The Data Domain-Data Concept structure is closely related to the Data Entity-Data Attribute structure of the logical data layer. The main difference between them is that the conceptual data layer is context-independent, whereas the logical data layer describes the structure in an individual System.