A reference model is a model used as a benchmark and comparison. In the definition of the Organization for the Promotion of Structured Information Standards, it is used to understand the important relationships between entities in some environment and to develop a general standard or specification framework to support that environment.

concept

• Abstract: Reference models are used to provide information about an environment and to describe the types or kinds of entities that may occur in that environment, rather than the entities that actually occur in a particular environment;
• Entities and Relationships: The reference model describes two types of entities and their relationships;
• Same context: Reference models do not attempt to describe “specific things” but rather illustrate the “context” or problem space;
• Uncertainty: Reference models are often used to facilitate understanding of a problem rather than a specific solution.

application

• Create standards for objects and their relationships in the model, which makes it easier to create and extend software;
• In education, leaders in software development can break down problems to speed up processing and improve efficiency;
• Improve communication between people by breaking down problems into entities or "things that exist";
• Creating clear roles and responsibilities can improve the overall effectiveness of the team;
• Used to compare different things. Once a problem has been broken down into basic concepts, a reference model can be used to examine different solutions.