Reference Data Management
Of the two types of information elements Values and Entities, Entities can change their information contents without changing their identity. How those changes happen depend on the role that an Entity plays in the system and is determined by their lifecycle.
- Entity Lifecycle
- The set of states and transitions that determine how an Entity can change its information contents and how those changes are recorded in the system. The lifecycle of an Entity is determined by the business requirements for that Entity and the role it plays in the system.
Reference Data Entity Lifecycle¶
Requirements on Reference Data Lifecycle¶
Reference data in Arda’s systems must meet these requirements:
| Requirement | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Versioning | Users must be able to retrieve the value of any reference data entity at any time in the past. | A user can view the reference data values that applied when a sales order was accepted. |
| Immutable References | Each version of reference data must have a stable identifier for business processes. | A manufacturing operation on the shop floor can refer to fixed process sheets or units of measure. |
| Auditable | All changes must be recorded and reviewable. The audit trail should include the user, timestamp, data versions before and after, and an optional comment. | Regulatory compliance, product recalls and accounting audits. |
| Temporal Resilience | Reference data must keep track, not only when changes are made in the “real-world” (effective time), but also when the system is updated (recorded time) and keep a consistent representation of the data. | An auditor must be able to justify the amounts in an invoice based on what the information contents of the system was at the time the invoice was issued, even if there was a change in prices or other data that were in effect at the time but not updated in the system. |
| Staged Changes | The system must support the ability to stage changes to reference data so that they can be reviewed and approved before being made effective. Changes can then be made effective on a scheduled time. Note that more than one staging level may be needed in the future. This is TBD | A user may take longer than a single interaction to complete the changes to a reference data item, or multiple users may be involved in the updates and approvals. |
Lifecycle¶
Reference data items can only be viewed by their owner or a reduced set of users when they are in the DRAFT state and cannot be used in business processes except for testing purposes. Once they are archived, they cannot be used in business processes and can only be viewed by users that have access to historical data.
When in the PUBLISHED state, versioning information is available to users and the item can be used in business processes subject to regular access control rules. The details of what versions are accessible to different users and processes will depend on the specifics of the business process and the user’s privileges. E.g. In regular use, only the current version of a price reference data can be used in a sales order, but certain users may be able to access past or future versions to support audits or other exceptional business processes.
Transactional Data Lifecycle¶
TBD