In his article “ArchiMate from a data modelling perspective” Bas van Gils from BiZZdesign talks about the difference between conceptual, logical and physical levels of abstraction. This distinction is very often used in (enterprise) IT architecture but is often also poorly understood, defined or applied.

Bas refers to the TOGAF/IAF definitions:

TOGAF seems to follow the interpretation close to Capgemini’s IAF where conceptual is about “what”, logical is about “how” and physical is about “with what”. In that case, conceptual/logical appears to map on the architecture level, whereas physical seems to map on the design/ implementation level. All three are somewhat in line but in practice we still see people mix-and-match between abstraction levels.

I am not a fan of the above. It is one of those definitions that tries to explain a concept by using specific words in the hope to evoke a shared emotion. Needless to say, this type of definition is at the heart of many open ended and often very emotional online discussions.

Conceptual, logical and physical are most often related to the idealization – realization spectrum of abstraction. This spectrum abstracts ‘things’ by removing elements relating to the realization of the ‘thing’. Opposite, the spectrum elaborates ‘things’ by adding elements related to a specific realization. You can say that a conceptual model contains less elements related to a realization compared to a logical model. You can also say that a physical model contains more elements related to a realization when compared to a logical model.

In other words, conceptual, logical and physical are relative to each other. They don’t point to a specific abstraction. For that you need to specify more information on exactly what kind of elements of realizations you want to abstract away at each level of abstraction.

The most commonly used reference model for using these three levels is as follows:

• Conceptual. All elements related to an implementation with an Information System are abstracted away.
• Logical. A realization with an Information System is not abstracted away anymore. All elements related to a technical implementation of this Information System are abstracted away.
• Physical. A technical realization is assumed and not abstracted away anymore.

That is the only way to define the levels conceptual, logical and physical: define what type of realization-related elements are abstracted away at each level. You can never assume everyone uses the same reference model. You either pick an existing one (e.g. Zachman Framework) or define your own.

Saying that conceptual is “what”, logical is “how” and physical is “with what” is confusing to say the least. Especially if you know that in the Zachman Framework “how” and “what” are even orthogonal to “conceptual” and “logical”.

At first it is not easy to define a conceptual model without referring to an Information System. For instance any referral to lists, reports or querying assumes an Information System and is in fact already at the logical model.

A misunderstanding I often hear is that people assume that conceptual means (a lot) less detail compared to logical. That’s not true. A conceptual model can consist of as many models and pages of text as a logical model. In reality, conceptual models are often more limited but I only have to point to the many failed IT projects due to too little detail at the conceptual model. It’s just wrong.