Capture information flow data

Information flows exchange business data between applications. For each information flow, one application is considered the source of the information flow and the other application is considered the target of the information flow. The information flows transfer the business data that applications either create, read, update, or delete (CRUD).

The number of information flows that an application is associated with helps the application architect determine the complexity of the application, potential redundancies among applications, and the effort involved in migrating or replacing an application.

Users with the user profiles Portfolio Manager, and Portfolio Admin can add and edit information flows in Alfabet. Click for an overview of permission concepts.

You can add a new information flow from anywhere in the product via the orange New button in the header. Or go to Information Architecture > Information Flows to open the data workbench for information flow.

The syntax of the information flow name is: <Source Application> > <Target Application>:

Try to capture as much information as possible about the information flow because complete data considerably improves the results of business questions and other analytics.

An application can be a source of an outgoing information flow and the target of an incoming information flow. The information flow transfers the business object that applications operate on. The application can create, read, update, delete (CRUD), or process the business data. The application's information flows may also use the business object.

In the data table, click the navigate Navigate button of the information flow you want to define. Go to the Information Context tab and open and scroll to the Business Object page and open it.

Create business data. Click New > Create Business Data and define the business data's basic information or click Add Existing Business Data to select a business data that is in the repository. Click OK or Next to save the data. Define the following fields:

  • Name: (Mandatory) Enter a unique name for the business data. The use of a comma (,) in the name business data is not recommended. To assure correct handling, the comma (,) will be replaced by a period (.) in conjunction with the display of business data in the CRUD matrices.
  • Version: (Mandatory) Enter a version number for the business data. The name and version number of the business data should be unique.
  • Data Category: (Mandatory) Assign the business data to a data category. The business data is typically the instantiation of the data category.
  • Business Capability: (Recommended) Select the business capability that the business data is relevant for.
  • Data Classification: Classify the business data based on data protection requirements. Possible options are: Confidential - Non-Personal Data, Confidential - Personal Data, Restricted, Unrestricted, and Unknown
  • Description: Enter a meaningful description that will clarify the purpose of the business data.

Specify the usage of the business data by the source or target application or the information flow. In the Overview tab of the application, click either the application displayed in either the From (Source) Owner attribute or To (Target) Owner attribute to navigate to the application. In the Information Context tab, scroll to the Business Data page to open it.​ Select the checkbox  DWB_Checkbox for the information flow you want to edit and click the Business Data Usage button to open the editor to define how the application operates on the business data. Select all checkboxes that are relevant for the application and click OK to save the specification.

  • Create: Select if the business data can be created by the application.
  • Is Input: Select if the business data can be used by any of the application's incoming information flows.
  • Read: Select if the business data can be read by the application.
  • Is Output: Select if the business data can be used by any of the application's outgoing information flows.
  • Update: Select if the business data can be updated by the application.
  • Delete: Select if the business data can be deleted by the application.
  • Processing: Select if the application processes information pertaining to the business data. Processing indicates that the business data is handled in the context of the relevant object without the data being altered, created or deleted. The data is typically kept locally so that a desynchronization results between the processed business data and the system(s) of records for the business data.

    Typically, it is not the raw data that is processed but some aggregation or abstraction of the business data (for example, data in an operational data store or an OLAP-based reporting solution).

  • Business Data Usage Comments: If required, provide additional information about the business data usage.