Enterprise information unification

• US 20030177481A1
• Filed: 11/22/2002
• Published: 09/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Meir, Rannen, Schreiber, Zvi, Marchant, Hayden, Fox, Joshua, Melamed, Boris, Hellman, Ziv, Edelstein, Joseph, Yitzhaki, Guy, Amaru, Ruth M., Cavenor, David, Hazan-Fuchs, Ahuva, Halberstadt, Benjamin
• Granted Patent: US 7,673,282 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/148
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/84 Mapping; Conversion

Abstract

An enterprise information unification system including an information modeler for modeling business entities and their properties as an information model, the information model being comprised of business constructs, a data rationalizer for generating mappings from physical data assets to the information model, the physical data assets being comprised of data asset constructs, and a data thesaurus for automating tasks of data management based on the mappings. A method is also described and claimed.

Claims

1. An enterprise information unification system comprising:

an information modeler for modeling business entities and their properties as an information model, the information model being comprised of business constructs;

a data rationalizer for generating mappings from physical data assets to the information model, the physical data assets being comprised of data asset constructs; and

a data thesaurus for automating tasks of data management based on the mappings.

2. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 wherein said data thesaurus translates business instructions for the information model into corresponding data processing instructions for the physical data assets, based on the mappings.

3. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 wherein the information model is an ontology model and wherein the business constructs include ontology classes and properties of ontology classes.

4. The enterprise information unification system of claim 3 wherein the business constructs include ontology class inheritance relationships.

5. The enterprise information unification system of claim 4 wherein the business constructs include business rules identifying relationships among the class properties.

6. The enterprise information unification system of claim 5 wherein the business rules include user defined functions.

7. The enterprise information unification system of claim 5 wherein the business rules include look-up tables for relating values of two or more class properties.

8. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 wherein said information modeler generates descriptors for business constructs.

9. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 wherein the physical data assets include at least one relational database schema.

10. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 wherein the physical data assets include at least one XML schema.

11. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 further comprising a model navigator for interactively viewing the information model

12. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 further comprising a model simulator for simulating the information model.

13. The enterprise information unification system of claim 12 wherein said simulator comprises a test instance generator for generating instances of the business constructs.

14. The enterprise information unification system of claim 13 further comprising a test instance exporter for exporting instances of business constructs into at least one XML document that is valid with respect to an XML schema for the information model.

15. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 further comprising a model validator for validating a simulation of the information model.

16. The enterprise information unification system of claim 15 wherein said model validator comprises a test instance validator for validating instances of the business constructs against requirements of the information model.

17. The enterprise information unification system of claim 16 wherein the requirements of the information model include data type requirements.

18. The enterprise information unification system of claim 16 wherein the requirements of the information model include relationships among the business constructs.

19. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 wherein said data rationalizer comprises a programming interface for generating the mappings from the physical data assets into the information model.

20. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 wherein said data rationalizer generates the mappings based on the schemas of the physical data assets.

21. The enterprise information unification system of claim 20 wherein said data rationalizer describes which business constructs the data asset constructs relate to.

22. The enterprise information unification system of claim 21 wherein said data rationalizer generates mappings from data asset constructs to corresponding business constructs.

23. The enterprise information unification system of claim 22 wherein said data rationalizer comprises a reverse modeler for automatically inferring at least a portion of the information model corresponding to at least one physical data asset, and for automatically generating mappings from data asset constructs to corresponding business constructs.

24. The enterprise information unification system of claim 23 wherein said data rationalizer comprises a synchronizer for synchronizing updates to at least one physical data asset.

25. The enterprise information unification system of claim 24 wherein said synchronizer describes to a user the updates to the at least one physical data asset.

26. The enterprise information unification system of claim 25 wherein said synchronizer comprises an impact analyzer for determining the impact of the updates to the at least one physical data asset on the mapping of the at least one physical data asset into the information model.

27. The enterprise information unification system of claim 26 wherein said reverse modeler automatically updates the information model corresponding to the updates to the at least one physical data asset.

28. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 wherein said information modeler comprises a model importer for importing a logical data model.

29. The enterprise information unification system of claim 28 wherein the logical data model is an ontology model.

31. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 wherein said information modeler comprises a model editor for editing the information model.

32. The enterprise information unification system of claim 31 further comprising an impact analyzer for determining the impact of a candidate modification to the information model on the business constructs and the mappings.

33. The enterprise information unification system of claim 31 wherein said impact analyzer determines the impact of a candidate modification to the physical data assets on the mappings.

34. The enterprise information unification system of claim 32 wherein said information modeler designates business constructs as being in an undefined state when said impact analyzer determines that such constructs are no longer well-defined, in response to a user performing the candidate modification to the information model.

35. The enterprise information unification system of claim 34 wherein said model editor further modifies the information model so as to repair at least one business construct designated as being in the undefined state, in response to which said information modeler no longer designates the at least one business construct as being in the undefined state.

36. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 further comprising a publisher for exporting the information model to a presentation.

37. The enterprise information unification system of claim 36 wherein said publisher also exports the physical data assets to the presentation.

38. The enterprise information unification system of claim 37 wherein said publisher also exports the mappings from the physical data assets to the information model.

39. The enterprise information unification system of claim 38 wherein the presentation is a web presentation including linked HTML pages.

40. The enterprise information unification system of claim 39 wherein the HTML pages-include informational pages corresponding to business constructs and information pages corresponding to data asset constructs, and wherein the HTML pages are linked in accordance with the mappings between the physical data assets and the information model.

41. The enterprise information unification system of claim 36 wherein the presentation is formatted in XML documents.

42. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 further comprising an exporter for exporting the information model according to an industry standard format.

43. The enterprise information unification system of claim 42 wherein the exporter exports the information model in DAML+OIL format.

44. The enterprise information unification system of claim 42 wherein the exporter exports the information model in Resource Description Framework (RDF) format.

45. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 wherein said information modeler comprises a query builder for generating queries on the information model.

46. The enterprise information unification system of claim 45 wherein said data thesaurus comprises a query generator translating queries on the information model into corresponding queries on at least one of the physical data assets.

47. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 wherein said data thesaurus comprises a transformation generator for generating transformation scripts to convert data from at least one of the physical data assets to at least one other of the physical data assets.

48. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 wherein said data thesaurus comprises a data locator for identifying and locating data asset constructs that correspond to prescribed business constructs.

49. The enterprise information unification system of claim 48 wherein said data locator also identifies formats of the data asset constructs that correspond to the prescribed business constructs.

50. The enterprise information unification system of claim 48 further comprising a data access controller associating at least one data access privilege with the data asset constructs that correspond to the prescribed business constructs, based on a data access policy associated with the information model.

51. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 further comprising a transmitter transmitting the data processing instructions for the physical data assets to a query engine capable of querying across at least one physical data asset.

52. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 further comprising a transmitter transmitting the data processing instructions for the physical data assets to an enterprise application integration system.

53. The enterprise information unification system of claim 52 wherein said transmitted transmits the data processing instructions just in time, as the enterprise application integration system encounters messages that require translation.

54. The enterprise information unification system of claim 52 further comprising an interface to the enterprise integration system that is a web service.

55. The enterprise information unification system of claim 52 wherein said transmitter transmits the data processing instructions for the physical data assets to a message broker for the enterprise application integration system.

56. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 further comprising a transmitter transmitting the data processing instructions for the physical data assets to an extraction transformation and loading (ETL) system for a data warehousing system.

57. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 further comprising a transmitter transmitting the data processing instructions for the physical data assets to a data cleansing system.

58. The enterprise information unification system of claim 1 further comprising a transmitter transmitting the data processing instructions for the physical data assets to a data mining system.

30. The enterprise information unification system of 28 wherein the logical data model is an entity-relationship diagram.

59. A method for enterprise information unification comprising:

modeling business entities and their properties as an information model comprised of business constructs;

generating mappings from physical data assets to the information model, the physical data assets being comprised of data asset constructs; and

automating tasks of data management based on the mappings.

60. The method of claim 59 wherein said automating tasks comprises translating business instructions for the information model into corresponding data processing instructions for the physical data assets, based on the mappings.

61. The method of claim 59 wherein the information model is an ontology model and wherein the business constructs include ontology classes and properties of ontology classes.

62. The method of claim 61 wherein the business constructs include ontology class inheritance relationships.

63. The method of claim 62 wherein the business constructs include business rules identifying relationships among the class properties.

64. The method of claim 63 wherein the business rules include user defined functions.

65. The method of claim 63 wherein the business rules include look-up tables for relating two or more class properties.

66. The method of claim 59 wherein said modeling business entities and their properties comprises generating descriptors for business constructs.

67. The method of claim 59 wherein the physical data assets include at least one relational database.

68. The method of claim 59 wherein the physical data assets include at least one XML document.

69. The method of claim 59 further comprising interactively viewing the information model.

70. The method of claim 59 further comprising simulating the information model.

71. The method of claim 70 wherein said simulating comprises generating instances of the business constructs.

72. The method of claim 71 wherein said modeling business entities and their properties comprises exporting instances of business constructs into at least one XML document that is valid with respect to an XML schema for the information model.

73. The method of claim 59 further comprising validating a simulation of the information model

74. The method of claim 73 wherein said validating comprises validating instances of business constructs against requirements of the information model.

75. The method of claim 74 wherein the requirements of the information model include data type requirements.

76. The method of claim 74 wherein the requirements of the information model include relationships among business constructs.

77. The method of claim 59 wherein said generating mappings employs a programming interface for generating the mappings from the physical data assets into the business model.

78. The method of claim 59 wherein said generating mappings is based on schemas of the physical data assets

79. The method of claim 78 wherein said generating mappings comprises describing which business constructs the data asset constructs relate to.

80. The method of claim 79 wherein said generating mappings generates mappings from data asset constructs to corresponding business constructs.

81. The method of claim 80 wherein said generating mappings comprises:

automatically inferring at least a portion of the information model corresponding to at least one physical data asset; and

automatically generating mappings from data asset constructs to corresponding business constructs.

82. The method of claim 81 wherein said generating mappings comprises synchronizing updates to at least one physical data asset with the information model.

83. The method of claim 82 wherein said synchronizing updates comprises describing to a user the updates to the at least one physical data asset.

84. The method of claim 83 wherein said synchronizing comprises determining the impact of the updates to the at least one physical data asset on the mapping of the at least one physical data asset into the information model.

85. The method of claim 84 wherein said automatically inferring at least a portion of the information model comprises automatically updating the information model corresponding to the updates to the at least one physical data asset.

86. The method of claim 59 wherein said modeling business entities and their properties comprises importing a logical data model.

87. The method of claim 86 wherein the logical data model is an ontology model.

89. The method of claim 59 wherein said modeling business entities and their properties comprises editing the information model.

90. The method of claim 89 further comprising determining the impact of a candidate modification to the information model on the business constructs and the mappings.

91. The method of claim 89 further comprising determining the impact of a candidate modification to the physical data assets on the mappings.

92. The method of claim 90 wherein, in response to a user performing the candidate modification to the information model, said modeling business entities and their properties designates business constructs as being in an undefined state when said determining the impact determines that such constructs are no longer well-defined.

93. The method of claim 92 wherein said editing the information model comprises further modifying the information model so as to repair at least one business construct designated as being in the undefined state, in response to which said modeling business entities and their properties no longer designates the at least one business construct as being in the undefined state.

94. The method of claim 59 further comprising exporting the information model to a presentation.

95. The method of claim 94 further comprising exporting the physical data assets to the presentation.

96. The method of claim 95 further comprising exporting the mappings from the physical data assets to the information model.

97. The method of claim 96 wherein the presentation is a web presentation including linked HTML pages.

98. The method of claim 97 wherein the HTML pages include informational pages corresponding to business constructs and information pages corresponding to data asset constructs, and wherein the HTML pages are linked in accordance with the mappings between the physical data assets and the information model.

99. The method of claim 94 wherein the presentation is formatted in XML documents.

100. The method of claim 59 further comprising exporting the information model according to an industry standard format.

101. The method of claim 100 further comprising exporting the information model in DAML+OIL format.

102. The method of claim 100 exporting the information model in Resource Description Framework (RDF) format.

103. The method of claim 59 wherein said modeling business entities and their properties comprises generating queries on the information model.

104. The method of claim 103 wherein said automating tasks comprises translating queries on the information model into corresponding queries on at least one of the physical data assets.

105. The method of claim 59 wherein said automating tasks comprises generating transformation scripts to convert data from at least one of the physical data assets to at least one other of the physical data assets.

106. The method of claim 59 wherein said automating tasks comprises:

identifying data asset constructs that correspond to prescribed business constructs;

locating the data asset constructs that correspond to the prescribed business constructs.

107. The method of claim 106 wherein said identifying data asset constructs comprises identifying formats of the data asset constructs that correspond to the prescribed business constructs.

108. The method of claim 106 further comprising associating at least one data access privilege with the data asset constructs that correspond to the prescribed business constructs, based on a data access policy associated with the information model.

109. The method of claim 59 further comprising transmitting the data processing instructions for the physical data assets to a query engine capable of querying across at least one physical data asset.

110. The method of claim 59 further comprising transmitting the data processing instructions for the physical data assets to an enterprise application integration system.

111. The method of claim 110 wherein said transmitting transmits the data processing instructions just in time, as the enterprise application integration system encounters messages that require translation.

112. The method of claim 110 wherein said transmitting comprises transmitting the data processing instructions for the physical data assets to a message broker for the enterprise application integration system.

113. The method of claim 59 further comprising transmitting the data processing instructions for the physical data assets to an extraction transformation and loading (ETL) system for a data warehousing system.

114. The method of claim 59 further comprising transmitting the data processing instructions for the physical data assets to a data cleansing system.

115. The method of claim 59 further comprising transmitting the data processing instructions for the physical data assets to a data mining system.

88. The method of 86 wherein the logical data model is an entity-relationship diagram.

116. An enterprise information unification system comprising:

a memory for storing an information model that models business entities and their properties, and for storing mappings from physical data assets to the information model; and

a data thesaurus coupled to the memory and translating business instructions for the information model into corresponding data processing instructions for the physical data assets, based on the mappings.

117. The enterprise information unification system of claim 116 wherein the information model comprises business rules, and wherein said data thesaurus embeds business rules into the data instructions for the physical data assets.

118. A method for enterprise information unification comprising:

providing an information model that models business entities and their properties;

providing mappings from physical data assets to the information model; and

translating business instructions for the information model into corresponding data processing instructions for the physical data assets, based on the mappings.

119. The method of claim 118 wherein the information model comprises business rules, and wherein said translating comprises embedding business rules into the data instructions for the physical data assets.

120. An enterprise information unification system comprising:

a memory for storing an information model that models business entities and their properties, the information model being comprised of business constructs, and for storing mappings from physical data assets to the information model; and

an impact analyzer coupled to the memory and determining the impact of a candidate modification to the information model on the business constructs and the mappings.

121. A method for enterprise information unification comprising:

providing an information model that models business entities and their properties, the information model being comprised of business constructs;

providing mappings from physical data assets to the information model; and

determining the impact of a candidate modification to the information model on the business constructs and the mappings.

122. An enterprise information unification system comprising:

a memory storing an information model that models business entities and their properties, the information model being comprised of structured business constructs and business rules, and for storing mappings from physical data assets to the information model; and

a rationalization validator coupled to the memory and validating that the physical data assets conform to the structure and business rules of the information model, based on the mappings.

123. A method for enterprise information unification comprising:

providing an information model that models business entities and their properties, the information model being comprised of structured business constructs and business rules;

providing mappings from physical data assets to the business model; and

validating that the physical data assets conform to the structure and business rules of the information model, based on the mappings.

124. An enterprise information unification system comprising:

a memory storing an information model that models business entities and their properties, and for storing mappings from physical data assets to the information model; and

a consistency validator coupled to the memory and comparing physical data assets that have related data for consistency, based on the mappings.

125. A method for enterprise information unification comprising:

providing an information model that models business entities and their properties;

providing mappings from physical data assets to the information model; and

comparing physical data assets that have related data for consistency, based on the mappings.

126. An enterprise information unification system comprising:

a memory storing an information model that models business entities and their properties, and for storing mappings from physical data assets to the information model; and

a data locator coupled to the memory and identifying physical data assets having overlapping data, based on the mappings.

127. A method for enterprise information unification comprising:

providing an information model that models business entities and their properties;

providing mappings from physical data assets to the information model; and

identifying physical data assets having overlapping data, based on the mappings.

128. An enterprise information unification system comprising:

a memory storing an information model that models business entities and their properties, and for storing mappings from a first and second version of a physical data asset to the information model; and

a data migrator coupled to the memory and generating transformation scripts from the first version of the physical data asset to the second version, based on the mappings.

129. A method for enterprise information unification comprising:

providing an information model that models business entities and their properties;

providing mappings from a first and second version of a physical data asset to the information model; and

generating transformation scripts from the first version of the physical data asset to the second version, based on the mappings.

130. An enterprise information unification system comprising:

a memory storing an information model that models business entities and their properties, and for storing mappings from physical data assets to the information model; and

a data thesaurus coupled to the memory and describing how to transform data from a first physical data asset to a second physical data asset, based on the mappings.

131. The enterprise information unification system of claim 130 wherein said data thesaurus describes textually how to transform data from a first physical data asset to a second physical data asset.

132. The enterprise information unification system of claim 130 wherein said data thesaurus describes graphically how to transform data from a first physical data asset to a second physical data asset.

133. A method for enterprise information unification comprising:

providing an information model that models business entities and their properties;

providing mappings from physical data assets to the information model; and

describing how to transform data from a first physical data asset to a second physical data asset, based on the mappings.

134. The method of claim 133 wherein said describing describes textually how to transform data from a first physical data asset to a second physical data asset.

135. The method of claim 133 wherein said describing describes graphically how to transform data from a first physical data asset to a second physical data asset.

136. A collaborative business data modeling system, comprising:

at least one central project manager for maintaining a central project, the central project being comprised of business constructs that can be in locked or unlocked states, comprising;

a central project editor for updating the central project based on received modification instructions; and

a central lock manager for granting and releasing locks on business constructs, whereby such business constructs are put in a locked state when the locks are granted; and

distributed local project builders for modeling business entities and their properties, each comprising;

a local instruction generator for generating modification instructions for said central project editor; and

a local lock processor for requesting and releasing locks on the business constructs from said central lock manager, wherein the grant of a lock on a business construct to a local lock processor of a local project builder prevents local instruction generators of other local project builders from generating modification instructions for such business construct.

137. The collaborative business data modeling system of claim 136 wherein at least one of said at least one central project manager further comprises a central version control manager for providing a current version of the central project to a local project builder, for use thereby as a local copy of the central project, wherein each of said local project builders comprises a local project editor for editing the local copy of the central project, and wherein the modification instructions correspond to actions performed by said local project editor.

138. The collaborative business data modeling system of claim 136 wherein at least one of said at least one central project manager further comprises a central version control manager for providing current versions of business constructs to a local project builder, for use thereby as local copies of such business constructs, wherein each of said local project builders comprises a local project editor for editing the local copies of the business constructs, and wherein the modification instructions correspond to actions performed by said local project editor.

139. The collaborative business data modeling system of claim 136 wherein at least one of said at least one central project manager comprises a central broadcaster notifying local project builders when said central project editor updates the central project.

140. The collaborative business data modeling system of claim 136 wherein said central project editor selectively applies the received modification instructions, so as to preserve integrity of the central project.

141. The collaborative business data modeling system of claim 140 wherein said central project manager notifies the local project builder from which the modification instructions were generated, upon receipt of modification instructions that said central project editor cannot apply.

142. The collaborative business data modeling system of claim 136 further comprising an impact analyzer for identifying a group of business constructs that can be potentially impacted by a modification instruction enabled by grant of a lock request received from a local lock processor.

143. The collaborative business data modeling system of claim 142 wherein said central lock manager puts the group of business constructs, identified by said impact analyzer, in a locked state, prior to granting the lock request to the local lock processor.

144. The collaborative business data modeling system of claim 136 wherein said central lock manager puts a pre-determined group of business constructs, potentially impacted by a modification instruction enabled by grant of a lock request, in a locked state, prior to granting the lock request.

145. The collaborative business data modeling system of claim 136 wherein the locks on the business constructs are exclusive locks, so that said central project manager does not grant a lock on a business construct to a local project builder if the business construct is in a locked state.

146. The collaborative business data modeling system of claim 136 further comprising an access controller for authenticating users of local project builders who wish to access the central project.

147. A method for collaborative business data modeling, comprising:

maintaining a central project, the central project being comprised of business constructs that can be in locked or unlocked states;

granting and releasing locks on business constructs of the central project, whereby such business constructs are put in a locked state when the locks are granted;

generating modification instructions for the central project;

requesting and releasing locks on the business constructs, wherein grant of the locks enable said generating modification instructions; and

updating the central project based on the modification instructions.

148. The method of claim 147 further comprising:

providing a current version of the central project for use as a local copy of the central project; and

editing the local copy of the central project, wherein the modification instructions correspond to actions performed by said editing.

149. The method of claim 147 further comprising:

providing current versions of business constructs for use as local copies of such business constructs; and

editing the local copies of the business constructs, wherein the modification instructions correspond to actions performed by said editing.

150. The method of claim 147 further comprising broadcasting a notification when said updating updates the central project.

151. The method of claim 147 wherein said updating the central project comprises selectively applying the modification instructions, so as to preserve integrity of the central project.

152. The method of claim 151 further comprising sending a notification when said updating the central project receives modification instructions it cannot apply.

153. The method of claim 147 further comprising identifying a group of business constructs that can be potentially impacted by a modification instruction enabled by grant of a lock request.

154. The method of claim 153 wherein said granting and releasing locks comprises putting the group of business constructs, identified by said identifying business constructs, in a locked state, prior to granting the lock request.

155. The method of claim 147 wherein said granting and releasing locks comprises putting a pre-determined group of business constructs, potentially impacted by a modification instruction enabled by grant of a lock request, in a locked state, prior to granting the lock request.

156. The method of claim 147 wherein the locks on the business constructs are exclusive locks, so that said granting and releasing locks does not grant a lock on a business construct if the business construct is in a locked state.

157. The method of claim 147 further comprising authenticating users who wish to access the central project.

158. An enterprise information unification system comprising:

a concept organizer for centrally organizing a plurality of inter-related business concepts, the business concepts including (i) an information model, (ii) business assets, (iii) mappings, queries and transformations relating to the business assets, and (iv) instances of the information model and the business assets; and

a concept navigator displaying information about the plurality of business concepts, in response to interactive user requests.

159. The enterprise information unification system of claim 158 wherein the business concepts are comprised of inter-related components, and wherein the concept navigator interactively displays information about components that are related to a requested business concept component.

160. The enterprise information unification system of claim 159 wherein inter-related components can be related directly or indirectly, and wherein the concept navigator interactively displays information about components that are directly related to a requested business concept component.

161. The enterprise information unification system of claim 159 further comprising an editable concept catalogue for classifying the plurality of business concepts and their components.

162. The enterprise information unification system of claim 158 further comprising an inconsistency analyzer for determining inconsistencies among the plurality of inter-related business concepts, and wherein said concept navigator display the inconsistencies.

163. The enterprise information unification system of claim 158 further comprising a validator for validating instances of the information model.

164. The enterprise information unification system of claim 158 further comprising a data processor for executing queries and transformations.

165. A method for enterprise information unification comprising:

centrally organizing a plurality of inter-related business concepts, the business concepts including (i) an information model, (ii) business assets, (iii) mappings, queries and transformations relating to the business assets, and (iv) instances of the information model and the business assets; and

displaying information about the plurality of business concepts, in response to interactive user requests.

166. The method of claim 165 wherein the business concepts are comprised of inter-related components, and said displaying comprises interactively displaying information about components that are related to a requested business concept component.

167. The method of claim 166 wherein inter-related components can be related directly or indirectly, and wherein said displaying comprises interactively displaying information about components that are directly related to a requested business concept component.

168. The method of claim 166 further comprising classifying the plurality of business concepts and their components.

169. The method of claim 165 further comprising determining inconsistencies among the plurality of inter-related business concepts, and wherein said displaying comprises displaying the inconsistencies.

170. The method of claim 165 further comprising validating instances of the information model.

171. The method of claim 165 further comprising executing queries and transformations.

172. A collaborative business data modeling system, comprising:

at least one central project manager for maintaining a central project, the central project being comprised of packages that can be in locked or unlocked states, each package including business constructs, comprising;

a central lock manager for granting and releasing locks on packages, whereby such packages are put in a locked state when the locks are granted; and

distributed local project builders for modeling business entities and their properties, each comprising;

a local project editor for modifying a local copy of a package of the central project;

a model merger for merging a modified package of the central model with the central model; and

a local lock processor for requesting and releasing locks on packages of the central project from said central lock manager, wherein the grant of a lock on a package of the central project to a local lock processor of a local project builder prevents local project editors of other local project builders from modifying such package.

173. The collaborative business data modeling system of claim 172 wherein each of said local project builders comprises a project navigator for interactively viewing a local copy of the central project.

174. A collaborative business data modeling system, comprising:

at least one central project manager for maintaining a central project, the central project being comprised of packages that include business constructs, comprising;

a central project editor for updating the central project based on received modification instructions; and

a project merger for merging an updated package of the central project with the central project; and

distributed local project builders for modeling business entities and their properties, each comprising a local project editor for modifying a local copy of a package of the central project.

175. The collaborative business data modeling system of claim 174 wherein each of said local project builders comprises a project navigator for interactively viewing the central project.

176. The collaborative business data modeling system of claim 174 wherein the packages of the central project can be in locked or unlocked states, wherein said at least one central project manager further comprises a central lock manager for granting and releasing locks on packages, whereby such packages are put in a locked state when the locks are granted, and wherein said local project builders each further comprises a local lock processor for requesting and releasing locks on packages of the central project from said central lock manager, wherein the grant of a lock on a package of the central project to a local lock processor of a local project builder prevents local instruction generators of other local project builders from generating modification instructions for such package.

177. A collaborative business data modeling system, comprising:

at least one central project manager for maintaining a central project, the central project being comprised of packages that can be in locked or unlocked states, each package including business constructs, comprising;

a project merger for merging an updated package of the central project with the central project; and

a central lock manager for granting and releasing locks on packages, whereby such packages are put in a locked state when the locks are granted; and

distributed local project builders for modeling business entities and their properties, each comprising;

a local project editor for modifying a local copy of a package of the central project; and

a local lock processor for requesting and releasing locks on packages of the central project from said central lock manager, wherein the grant of a lock on a package of the central project to a local lock processor of a local project builder prevents local project editors of other local project builders from modifying such package.

178. The collaborative business data modeling system of claim 177 wherein each of said local project builders comprises a model navigator for interactively viewing the central project.

179. The collaborative business data modeling system of claim 177 wherein each of said local project builders comprises a model navigator for interactively viewing a local copy of the central project.

180. A method for collaborative business data modeling, comprising:

downloading a central project from a server computer, the central project being comprised of packages that include business constructs;

requesting a check-out of a package of the central project from the server computer;

receiving a latest version of the central project from the server computer;

modifying the package of the central project;

requesting a check-in of the modified package of the central project;

further receiving a latest version of the central project from the server computer;

merging the modified package of the central project with the latest version of the central project; and

sending the merged central project to the server computer.

181. A method for collaborative business data modeling, comprising:

maintaining a central project, the central project being comprised of packages that include business constructs;

receiving a request from a client computer for check-out of a package of the central project;

sending a latest version of the central project to the client computer;

further receiving a request from the client computer for check-in of the package of the central project;

further sending a latest version of the central project to the client computer;

further receiving an updated version of the central project from the client computer; and

designating the updated version of the central project as the latest version of the central project.

182. The method of claim 181 wherein the packages of the central project can be in locked or unlocked states, further comprising:

determining whether or not the requested package of the central project is in a locked state, after receiving the request for check-out;

locking unlocked portions of the central project after receiving the request for check-in; and

unlocked the portions of the central project that were locked by said locking, after receiving the updated version of the central project.

183. A method for collaborative business data modeling, comprising:

viewing a central project stored on a server computer, the central project being comprised of package that include business constructs;

generating modification instructions for modifying a package of the central project; and

sending the modification instructions to the server computer, for application to the package of the central project.

184. The method of claim 183 wherein the packages of the central project can be in locked or unlocked states, further comprising requesting a lock on the package of the central project prior to said generating modification instructions.

185. A method for collaborative business data modeling, comprising:

maintaining a central project, the central project being comprised of packages that include business constructs;

receiving modification instructions for a package of the central project from a client computer; and

updating the package of the central project according to the modification instructions.

186. The method of claim 185 wherein the packages of the central project can be in locked or unlocked states, further comprising:

receiving a request for a lock on the package of the global business model from the client computer prior to said receiving modification instructions; and

determining whether or not the package of the central project is in a locked state.

187. A method for collaborative business data modeling, comprising:

viewing a central project, the central project being comprised of packages that include business constructs;

requesting a check-out of a package of the central project from a server computer;

receiving a latest version of the package of the central project from the server computer;

modifying the package of the central project; and

sending the modified package of the central project to the server computer.

188. A method for collaborative business data modeling, comprising:

maintaining a central project, the central project being comprised of packages that include business constructs;

receiving a request from a client computer for check-out of a package of the central project;

sending a latest version of the package of the central project to the client computer;

further receiving a modified package of the central project from the client computer;

designating the modified package of the central project as the latest version of the package of the central project;

merging the modified package of the central project with the central project; and

designating the modified package of the central project as the latest version of the package of the central project.

189. The method of claim 188 wherein the packages of the central project can be in locked or unlocked states, further comprising determining whether or not the package of the central is in a locked state prior to said sending.