Element - Structure Diagram

Definition

Object structures fuse the BPMN concept of item definition with the description of their structure so that you don't have to get to grips with two elements, the object and a separate structure description.

The diagram is targeted towards showing you a structure and input mask, which means you can have a notation which can be easily understood and where you can include structures with technical uses.

Object structure and structure diagram complement the concepts of classes and class diagrams and/or entities and entity diagrams. Object structures are primarily used for capturing the business side of structures.

Analysis of structures and their decomposition should really take place as a UML class model or entity relationship model.

Icon

The icon is of a diagram with a structure in it.

Use

The structure diagram can be added to a whiteboard diagram as a node. New structure diagrams cannot be created in the whiteboard diagram.

Dependencies between structure elements and elements from other diagrams are shown in the whiteboard diagram.

Elements in a Structure Diagram

The following model elements can be shown as nodes in the structure diagram:

Icon	Element	Brief Description
	Structure Definition	Use a structure definition to describe a business object's structure. You can define structure definitions as views of an existing class or data model. Instead of using structure definitions, you can directly describe the structure of a business object using a structure from the class or data model.
	Structure Group	A structure group combines structure entries within one structure definition. You can define structure groups as views of an existing class or data model.
	Structure Entry	A structure entry defines a structure property of a business object. You can assign a type to the structure entry. The type can be a complex structure definition or a structure from the class or data model.

Example for an Structure Diagram