Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Definition and Evolution of Information Systems Development Methodologies and Data Modeling
- 3 Philosophical Foundations
- 4 Conceptual and Paradigmatic Foundations of ISD
- 5 Paradigmatic Analysis of ISD Methodologies
- 6 Conceptual and Paradigmatic Foundations of Data Modeling
- 7 Paradigmatic Analysis of Data Modeling Approaches
- 8 Conclusions
- Appendix A Summaries of Selected Methodologies
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - Paradigmatic Analysis of Data Modeling Approaches
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Definition and Evolution of Information Systems Development Methodologies and Data Modeling
- 3 Philosophical Foundations
- 4 Conceptual and Paradigmatic Foundations of ISD
- 5 Paradigmatic Analysis of ISD Methodologies
- 6 Conceptual and Paradigmatic Foundations of Data Modeling
- 7 Paradigmatic Analysis of Data Modeling Approaches
- 8 Conclusions
- Appendix A Summaries of Selected Methodologies
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to explore in some detail the different schools of data modeling which were introduced in chapter 6. The first school embraces objectivism in data modeling. It follows the footsteps of the empiricalanalytical scientific method. It assumes that reality can be described by independent facts (which corresponds to the empirical base of observational statements in objectivist philosophy). The database captures these facts and data models provide the structure for organizing all the facts into a consistent picture of reality. In accordance with this, objectivist data modeling approaches were called fact-based or fact-oriented in chapter 6. The prominent features of the fact-based school will be discussed in section 7.2.
The second school of data modeling follows the social relativist tradition in the philosophy of science. It assumes that the domain of inquiry is not independent of the observer, and therefore reality cannot be described in terms of independent hard facts. Rather, what counts as reality are socially constructed images which emerge in social interaction, in particular through communication in some language. The details of these images are not completely arbitrary, but depend on the ‘grammar’ (the rules and ‘meanings’) which governs social communication. A data model attempts to formalize some of the informal social rules and meanings into a formalized grammar and hence a data model is a social construction par excellence. In accordance with this insight, subjectivist data modeling approaches were called rule-based in chapter 6.
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- Information Systems Development and Data ModelingConceptual and Philosophical Foundations, pp. 171 - 233Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995