The Semantic Modeling Framework - Enterprise Data Governance - page 167

- object oriented design, when it is badly carried out,
handles only small dimensional objects, with very high
coupling, which dilutes business objects into poorly
structured class diagrams.
The MDM approach cannot afford another failure
concerning the use of business objects. The rationalization of
the management of reference and master data and the
sharing of a common information model, across the whole
company, imposes the practice of business objects shared
throughout the company. Semantic modeling gives us the
necessary procedures for the reactivation of the business
objects concept.
First of all, semantic modeling brings together all the data
in the form of semantic classes. As previously stated, these
classes describe the business in an organization-independent
manner. Next, a business object is a semantic class, the
modeling of which is associated with a state machine that
determines its lifecycle. A business object is associated with
other semantic classes, some of which also have a state
machine. A business object is described by a single state
machine. The business objects are regrouped in the form of
data categories, the properties of which are discussed in the
next section.
A semantic class is modeled in the following manner:
- by its business identifier;
- by the data that it has fixed at the time of the
creation of the object (header);
- by its data than can be modified after the creation of
the object (body);
- by its associations with other semantic classes;
- by its elementary business operations; that is to say
the operations that do not depend on the business states;