A logical process model focuses on what a business does, while a physical process model focuses on how it's implemented in a database. They represent different design layers in application development.
To further clarify the distinction, consider the following table:
| Feature | Logical Process Model | Physical Process Model |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Business requirements and rules | Database implementation and technical details |
| Purpose | Represent business information and define business rules. | Focus on the physical implementation of the model in a database |
| Abstraction Level | High-level, conceptual | Low-level, detailed |
| Example | Defining a customer entity and its attributes | Creating a specific database table with datatypes and constraints for customer data |
In essence, the logical model helps in understanding and representing the business requirements independent of any specific technology. According to provided reference, it "enables you to represent business information and define business rules." For example, a logical data model might represent that customers have addresses, orders, and payment information.
The physical model, on the other hand, deals with the actual implementation of the logical model in a specific database system. As provided reference states, "the physical model enables you to focus on the physical implementation of the model in a database". This involves defining table structures, data types, indexes, and other database-specific details to optimize performance and storage. For example, a physical data model for a customer might specify that the customer_id is an integer, the customer_name is a varchar with length 255, and that there's an index on customer_id.
