ework. Hence some of the terminologies and concepts of SID can be found to have similarities with the eTOM business. This is intentional as TMF wanted to have a mapping of business processes to information models and applications developed using the information model. 24.2 Shared Information/Data Model (SID) The SID is a data centric framework similar to eTOM, which is a process centric framework of TMF. The SID information model represents business concepts, and the characteristics and relationships exhibited by the business concepts in an imple- mentation independent manner. The cases and contracts of NGOSS can be created using SID. The SID provides the reference models and common information/data catalogs that support eTOM business process models. Together SID and eTOM helps to ensure process to information alignment. The modeling language, UML is used for creating models in SID. The view of a business or system is created using UML class models and sequence diagrams in SID. Common definitions for terms like resource, product, customer and ser- vice, and their relationships are provided by SID. This results in a common lan- guage for information modeling with service developers, service providers, and integrators. SID is used as a reference model for data design in telecom solution development. Information Models The SID is composed of five building blocks: 1. Business entity: An item of business that follows a well-defined life cycle is represented as a business entity. It can be tangible things like a supplier, active things like inventory order, or conceptual things like customer account. 2. Aggregate business entity: A well-defined set of information and operations that helps to characterize a set of business entities is referred to as an aggregate business entity or ABE. 3. Attribute: This is a set of characteristics describing a business entity. Business entities can have relationships with other business entities and exhibit a set of characteristics. 4. Relationship: An association of business interests