Knowledge BaseGlossary

Data Architecture

Definition

Definition
Data Architecture

The structural design of an organisation’s data: what information it holds, how that information is modelled and classified, where each element originates, how it moves between systems, and how it is governed, secured and consumed. It describes structure and intent rather than any particular product or platform.

Expanded Explanation

A data architecture is usually expressed as a set of related views. A conceptual view names the entities the business cares about, such as product, supplier, material and batch, and the relationships between them. A logical view defines attributes, data types, permitted values and identifiers without reference to a specific technology. A physical view records how those structures are implemented in the systems actually in use.

Alongside those views sit the flows: which system creates each element, which systems consume it, by what mechanism, at what frequency, and which transformations occur along the way. Flow description is what turns an inventory of systems into an architecture, because it exposes where authority is lost, where values are duplicated and where a change in one system silently alters another.

A reference architecture is a related but distinct idea. A reference architecture is a general, non-binding model showing how a class of capability can be structured. An organisation’s data architecture is its own specific design, which may or may not follow such a model.

Why It Matters

Digital Product Passport publication draws on many systems at once and must produce one coherent, externally visible answer per field. Without a described architecture, programmes cannot say where a required attribute originates, whether it is duplicated, or what breaks when it changes, and they tend to discover those answers during integration rather than during design.

Common Misconceptions

Common Mistake
Data architecture is a diagram of databases

System inventories are only the physical view. The architecture is the modelled meaning, authority and movement of information, which a database diagram does not convey.

Common Mistake
A reference architecture is a required design

Reference models are educational and non-binding. They inform an organisation’s own architecture rather than prescribing it, and they are not regulatory requirements.

See Also

References

About This Article

About This Article
Last Reviewed
2026-08-09
Next Scheduled Review
2027-08-09
Article Version
1.0

tieback Knowledge is a continuously maintained reference library covering Digital Product Passports, product traceability, product compliance and related regulations. Articles are reviewed regularly as legislation, standards and implementation guidance evolve.