Business Object: A major business concept that represents one of the fundamental things an organisation deals with and that provides a stable anchor for its enterprise data model.
Business Object — A major business concept that represents one of the fundamental things an organisation deals with and provides a stable semantic anchor for its Common Data Model.
In ArchiMate, a Business Object represents a concept used within a particular business domain. ASF adopts that meaning and uses Business Objects as the high-level semantic anchors of the Common Data Model. Detailed logical modelling then defines the Entity Types, subtypes, identifiers, attributes and relationships needed to make those Business Objects precise.
Business Objects provide the mind-sized enterprise view of “what the business deals with.” They help establish shared meaning across capabilities, processes, systems, and organisational boundaries before more detailed modelling begins.
A Business Object is not simply an important database table. It represents a concept with clear business meaning, an agreed definition and governance significance.
Within the Common Data Model, a Business Object may be elaborated through more detailed Entity Types, including subtypes, dependent or associative entities, events, classifications and other structures needed to describe its meaning rigorously.
For example:
Product may be a Business Object.
Within the Common Data Model it may be refined into:
Product → Physical Product → Manufactured Product
A lower-level Entity Type such as Manufactured Product may then become the Root Entity Type of an L3 Subject Area, while remaining semantically anchored to the Product Business Object.
Detailed identifiers, attributes, keys, cardinalities, optionality and normalisation belong to the logical Entity Types within the Common Data Model rather than to the Business Object itself.
Business Objects provide the semantic anchors of the enterprise model; Entity Types provide the logical detail required to make that meaning rigorous.
Related glossary items:
For more detail see: