Core Relationships¶

Purpose¶

Relationships define how the core concepts of the Organizational Data Model relate to one another.

The relationships in this document represent meaningful organizational, operational, informational, and analytical connections. They are independent of any particular database implementation.

The relationship model is expected to evolve as additional domains are introduced.

Relationship Catalogue¶

Relationship	From	To	Description
`contains`	Organization	Department	An organization contains one or more departments.
`contains`	Department	Team	A department may contain one or more teams.
`includes`	Team	Person	A team includes people who participate in its activities.
`employs`	Organization	Person	An organization employs a person.
`owns`	Organization	System	An organization owns or is accountable for a system.
`owns`	Organization	Product	An organization owns or is accountable for a product.
`owns`	Organization	Process	An organization owns or is accountable for a process.
`owns`	Organization	Dataset	An organization owns or is accountable for a dataset.
`owns`	Organization	Document	An organization owns or is accountable for a document or knowledge artifact.
`works_with`	Organization	External Party	An organization has a relevant relationship with an external party.
`participates_in`	Person	Process	A person participates in a process.
`participates_in`	Team	Process	A team participates in a process.
`uses`	Process	System	A process uses a system to perform one or more activities.
`produces`	Process	Dataset	A process produces or updates a dataset.
`consumes`	Process	Dataset	A process consumes information from a dataset.
`produces`	System	Dataset	A system produces or updates a dataset.
`consumes`	System	Dataset	A system consumes a dataset.
`documents`	Document	Process	A document describes, records, or provides guidance for a process.
`documents`	Document	Product	A document describes or provides information about a product.
`documents`	Document	System	A document describes or provides information about a system.
`contains`	Dataset	Metric	A dataset contains observations or values representing a metric.
`measures`	Metric	Product	A metric measures an attribute or outcome associated with a product.
`measures`	Metric	Process	A metric measures an attribute or outcome associated with a process.
`measures`	Metric	System	A metric measures an attribute or outcome associated with a system.
`measures`	Metric	Organization	A metric measures an attribute or outcome associated with the organization.
`contributes_to`	Metric	KPI	A metric contributes to the calculation or evaluation of a KPI.
`uses`	KPI	Metric	A KPI uses one or more metrics as inputs.
`supports`	KPI	Organization	A KPI supports evaluation of organizational performance or objectives.
`supports`	KPI	Department	A KPI supports evaluation of departmental performance or objectives.
`supports`	KPI	Team	A KPI supports evaluation of team performance or objectives.

Relationship Characteristics¶

Relationships may have additional metadata as the model matures, including:

Cardinality
Direction
Ownership
Temporal validity
Confidence
Source
Effective date
End date
Status

Not every relationship requires all of these attributes.

Relationship Principles¶

Relationships represent meaning¶

A relationship should exist because it represents a meaningful organizational or informational connection, not merely because two records can be joined.

Relationships may be directional¶

For example:

System
    produces
Dataset

is different from:

Dataset
    is produced by
System

The inverse relationship may be useful for querying, but the underlying semantic relationship remains the same.

Relationships may cross domains¶

A social media system may produce a dataset that contains metrics used by a marketing KPI.

The relationship itself does not become a "social media relationship". It remains part of the common organizational model.

Domain relationships may extend the core model¶

Domains may introduce relationships that are specific to their concepts.

For example:

Social Account
    publishes
Content

does not need to become a core relationship until the organization has demonstrated that the concept and relationship are useful beyond the social media domain.

Initial Relationship Graph¶

The initial core model can be represented conceptually as:

Organization
    │
    ├── employs ────────────────> Person
    │
    ├── contains ───────────────> Department
    │                                  │
    │                                  └── contains ──> Team
    │                                                     │
    │                                                     └── includes ──> Person
    │
    ├── owns ──────────────────> System
    │                              │
    │                              ├── produces ──> Dataset
    │                              └── consumes ──> Dataset
    │
    ├── owns ──────────────────> Product
    │
    ├── owns ──────────────────> Process
    │                              │
    │                              ├── uses ──────> System
    │                              ├── produces ──> Dataset
    │                              └── consumes ──> Dataset
    │
    └── owns ──────────────────> Dataset

Dataset
    │
    └── contains ──────────────> Metric
                                   │
                                   └── contributes_to ──> KPI
                                                            │
                                                            └── supports ──> Organization

This is a starting relationship model, not a fixed schema.