The way that we view the world, the things in the world, and the relationships between those things, can be unique based on our individual (or enterprise) perspectives. In these cases, representing that view in our respective information systems may require changes to the underlying data model.
A salient quote that provides a grounding example and also proving that humour can be found where you’re least likely to expect it (i.e. a seminal 1976 computer science paper with over 12,000 citations):
It is possible that some people may view something (e.g. marriage) as an entity while other people may view it as a relationship. We think that is a decision which has to be made by the enterprise administrator. He should define what are entities and what are relationships so that the distinction is suitable for his environment.
Peter Pin-Shan Chen, The Entity-Relationship Model – Towards a Unified View of Data, 1976
I still smile every time I read that quote.
Originally posted on Linkedin