Consistency Checks: Variants

Completeness

A data model is considered as complete when it contains neither inconsistent relationships nor inconsistent specializations.

Relationships and specializations are inconsistent if their source entity types do not belong to the data model.

Existence of Predecessors

Predecessors of a data model exist when there are neither inconsistent relationships nor inconsistent specializations.

Relationships and specializations are considered as inconsistent in this check if their source entity types do not exist.

Connectivity

A data model is considered to be connective if all entity types of the data model are connective.

All entity types of a data model are connective if there is a path from each entity of the data model to each other entity type of the data model. These paths are either relationships or specializations.

A data model is not connective if the set of entity types of the data model falls into several unconnected subsets. However, the entity types of each individual subset are themselves connected.

If the number of subsets in the check log is greater than 1, the data model is not connective.

Existence of Hierarchy Objects

All objects in a hierarchy exist when there are neither inconsistent data models nor inconsistent entity types amongst the objects of the hierarchy.

Data models and entity types are inconsistent in this check if they are referenced in the hierarchy but do not exist.