A Philosophical Approach to the Concept of Data Model: Is a Data Model, in Fact, a Model?

The design of the database is crucial to the process of designing almost any Information System (IS) and involves two clearly identifiable key concepts: schema and data model, the latter allowing us to define the former. Nevertheless, the term “model” is commonly applied indistinctly to both, the confusion arising from the fact that in Software Engineering (SE), unlike in formal or empirical sciences, the notion of “model” has a double meaning of which we are not always aware. If we take our idea of “model” directly from empirical sciences, then the schema of a database would actually be a model, whereas the data model would be a set of tools allowing us to define such a schema.