“Just about every standards organization starts from a core or reference information model these days. From this model all things exchanged are eventually derived. The models themselves are most often expressed in a collection of one page UML diagrams.
A model is a description of a thing meant to show important properties and to enable others to study its characteristics. Multiple viewpoints need to be accounted for in modeling. Just like in architecture where we need to show the structural steel and concrete in one view, and the electrical power runs in another view, and the final artists rendering of the building in yet another view. Each of these views “hides” some important component of the finished product, making others clearer and more visible so that the interested parties can see what is important to them. But each view is necessarily incomplete in order to show what is normally hidden behind other parts of the system.”
Article
Keith W. Boone, Healthcare Standards, 20 June 2011
