Concept: Data Model
Data models capture abstractions of either conceptual, logical, or concrete information that provides substantial business value and which need to be managed.
Relationships
Main Description

In software engineering, a data model is an abstract model that describes how data is represented and accessed [WIKP-DM].

Three styles of data models generally are recognized:

  • Domain (or conceptual) models, which describe real-world concepts.  These often are used to communicate with stakeholders about information needs.  Information models and domain models are closely aligned.
  • Logical data models (LDMs), which describe to-be-persisted entities, their attributes, and their relationships.
  • Physical data models (PDMs), which describe the implemented datastore, often (for relational databases) in terms of tables, fields, keys, triggers, stored procedures, and other aspects of database technology.

Domain models increasingly are being used as a replacement for LDMs, in spite of the fact that the two models describe information at different levels of concern.  The differences in the two are further described in Concept: Information Model.