Logical Model Design Validation

A data model exposes many of the business rules that describe the area being modeled. Reading the relationships helps you validate that the design of the logical model is correct. Verb phrases provide a brief summary of the business rules embodied by relationships. Although they do not precisely describe the rules, verb phrases do provide an initial sense of how the entities are connected.

If you choose your verb phrases correctly, you can read a relationship from the parent to the child using an active verb phrase.

Example:

A PLANE FLIGHT <transports> many PASSENGERs.

Verb phrases can also be read from the perspective of the child entity. You can often read from the child entity perspective using passive verb phrases.

Example:

Many PASSENGERs <are transported by> a PLANE FLIGHT.

Verifying that each verb phrase in the model results in valid statements is a good practice. Reading your model back to the business analysts and subject matter experts is a good way to verify that it correctly captures the business rules.