Business categories, data domains, and data marts create a business-driven management framework. By dividing data into specific domains (business categories), defining core business activities (data domains), and organizing scenario-based data services (data marts), you can create a closed-loop value chain from data production to consumption. This topic describes the relationships between business categories, data domains, business processes, data marts, and subject areas, and their usage.
Core concept relationships
Business categories: The highest-level division of a business area. For example, a retail company can divide its business into physical retail and e-commerce based on sales channels.
Data domains: A cross-business aggregation of data subjects. Data domains are typically formed by classifying a company's business data based on multiple dimensions, such as business type, data source, and data usage. A data domain can belong to multiple business categories. For example, the transaction domain can serve transaction scenarios for both online and offline businesses.
Business processes: A specific business activity within a data domain. For example, the transaction domain can contain business processes such as placing an order or making a payment. A data domain can have multiple business processes.
Data marts: A data outlet for a specific business scenario, such as an operations platform.
Subject areas: A division of a data mart from an analytical perspective, such as a product analysis domain or a user behavior domain. A data mart can have multiple subject areas.
Business category
If your company has large and complex business operations, you can create business categories to differentiate data and facilitate data management.
Take the retail industry as an example. Common division dimensions include sales channels, product management lines, and core functions. You can use one of these dimensions to classify your business based on the principles of data ownership and business independence.
The following table provides examples of business divisions based on these common dimensions.
Division dimension | Applicable scenarios | Business category examples | Covered data range |
Sales channel | Omnichannel retailers | 1. Physical retail 2. E-commerce 3. Cross-border business | POS transactions, app orders, and overseas warehouse inventory |
Product management line | Multi-category groups | 1. Fast-moving consumer goods 2. Home appliance 3. Fresh produce | SKU basic information, product categories, and shelf-life monitoring |
Core function | Single-channel, multi-department collaboration | 1. Procurement and supply chain 2. Marketing 3. Member operations | Supplier profiles, promotion activity tables, and membership level tables |
Define a business category
In the left-side navigation pane of the Data Warehouse Planning page, click Business Category. Perform the following operations to define a business category.
Create a business category
On the Business Category page, hover over the
icon and click Create Top-level Category.Configure the parameters and click OK.
Create a subcategory
If you have other subcategories under the level-1 business category, you can create them in the same way you created the level-1 category.
Associate data domains
After you create a business category, you can associate data domains in the Associated Data Domains section of the category page to define the accessible data scope for the current business line. After the setup is complete, all data domains associated here can be used for data modeling under this business category.
For more information, see Data domain.
Manage data marts
After you create a business category, you can view the list of data marts mounted to it in the Data Mart Management section of the category page. You can also edit or delete data marts.
For more information, see Data mart.
Deleting a data mart removes its association with the business category and deletes the data mart itself. Proceed with caution.
Use a business category
After you create a business category, you can associate it when you create a Dimension Table, Fact Table, Aggregate Table, or Application Table in Dimensional Modeling. You can also click the 
button above the directory tree on the left to go to the model list page and view table classification details from a business data perspective.
You can also go to Data Metric and associate the business category when you create an Atomic Metric, Derived Metric, or Composite Metric in the common layer.
Data domain
A data domain is a high-level data classification standard created by abstracting, refining, and combining business processes. It serves as the primary grouping category for business users, helping them quickly locate their business data from a vast amount of information.
The following diagram shows the relationship between business categories and data domains in the retail industry.
Define a data domain
Create a data domain
In the left-side navigation pane of the Data Warehouse Planning page, click .
Click Create. Configure the parameters and click Confirm.
You cannot delete default data domains. Before deleting a custom data domain, you must delete all business processes and logical models under it.
Add a business process
After you create a data domain, you can view its details and create business processes based on it.
On the Data Domain page, click a data domain to go to its details page.
After you create a data domain, the system automatically adds a business process with the suffix
_defaultto it.Click Create Business Process. Configure the parameters and click OK.
Use a data domain
You can reference a data domain in the following modules:
In Dimensional Modeling, you can create a Source Table, Dimension Table, and Aggregate table under the specified data domain.
The abbreviation of the data domain can be used as an optional attribute in rule definitions when you add model rules in the checker of Data Layer.
Business process
A business process describes a business activity workflow. For example, in e-commerce, adding to the cart, placing an order, and making a payment can all be business processes. Business processes are widely used in business performance analysis, such as funnel analysis.
In funnel analysis, the activity of purchasing a product is broken down into business processes like browsing the product, adding it to the cart, placing an order, making a payment, and confirming receipt. By counting the number of orders for each business process, you can perform a funnel analysis on this metric.
The following diagram shows the relationship between business categories, data domains, and business processes in the retail industry.
Define a business process
In the left-side navigation pane of the Data Warehouse Planning page, click .
Click Create Business Process. Configure the parameters and click OK.
To delete a business process, you can delete it from the business process list or from the business process list within its data domain.
ImportantBefore deleting a business process, you must delete all associated logical models and metrics.
Use a business process
You can reference a business process in the following modules:
In Dimensional Modeling, associate a specific business process when creating a fact table.
In Data Metric, create atomic metrics, derived metrics, and composite metrics to measure business attributes for each business process.
Data mart
A data mart is a collection of personalized statistical data for a specific application scenario or product, based on a business category. It is typically located in the application layer.
For example, in the retail industry's e-commerce business, you can build data marts like an e-commerce mart and a retail customer profile mart to primarily serve the analytical needs of operations personnel.
Define a data mart
Create a data mart
In the left-side navigation pane of the Data Warehouse Planning page, click .
On the Data Mart page, hover over the
icon and click Create First-level Data Mart. Configure the parameters and click OK. The key parameters are described as follows:Mart Type
Business Mart: a mart for business requirements.
Data Application Mart: a mart for data product requirements.
Common Mart: Select this type if you want to create common application-layer models for all marts.
Business Category
The business category to which the data mart belongs. For more information, see Business category.
To delete a data mart, right-click the target mart in the data mart directory on the left and click Delete.
Create a sub-data mart
If you have other sub-data marts under a level-1 data mart, you can create them in the same way you created the level-1 data mart.
Manage subject areas
After you create a data mart, you can view the list of subject areas mounted to it in the Subject Area Management section of the data mart page. You can also edit or delete subject areas based on your business needs.
Deleting a subject area removes its association with the data mart and deletes the subject area itself.
Use a data mart
After you create a data mart, you can reference it in the following modules:
In Dimensional Modeling, associate the data mart when creating an application table for specific business data analysis.
In Data Metric, create derived metrics and composite metrics to measure business attributes for each data mart.
Subject area
A subject area is used to divide a data mart from an analytical perspective. It is typically a collection of closely related data subjects for business application statistical analysis.
Take an e-commerce data mart as an example. It primarily serves the analytical needs of industry operations personnel and belongs to the retail business category. You can then divide the data in the data mart into subject areas such as product, category, and region based on different perspectives. When you create application-layer derived metrics and models, you need to associate them with the target data mart and subject area.
Define a subject area
Create a subject area
In the left-side navigation pane of the Data Warehouse Planning page, click .
On the Subject Area page, hover over the
icon and click Create First-level Subject Area. Configure the parameters and click OK.To delete a subject area, right-click it in the subject area directory on the left and click Delete.
Create a sub-subject area
If you have other sub-subject areas under a level-1 subject area, you can create them in the same way you created the level-1 subject area.
Use a subject area
After you create a subject area, you can reference it in the following modules:
In Dimensional Modeling, associate the subject area when creating an application table.
In Data Metric, create derived metrics and composite metrics to measure business attributes for each subject area.
Next steps
After you complete the preceding configurations, you need to define the data warehouse structure, plan the data warehouse layers, and set up a checker for each layer to provide standards for subsequent dimensional modeling and data metrics.
For more information, see Data warehouse layering.