Questions to answer during the modeling phase

When modeling your component, the answers to these questions will help develop effective MIF data:

• Is there an existing standardized MIF file or group definition that I can use when describing all or part of this component?

  
  Tip:

  Use existing MIF files and Standard Groups MIF definitions as much as possible so as to allow more management applications to intelligently manage your component.

• Are there existing private (proprietary) MIF files or groups I can draw from?

  
  Tip:

  Existing MIF files may already have addressed difficult aspects of modeling your own product.

• What are the vendor-specific aspects of this component to be modeled?

• What is a sensible way to group the manageable aspects of this product, especially the vendor-specific or proprietary attributes?

• What information needs to be included to allow easy asset management?

  
  Tip:

  Be sure to include such things as product version number or release number, and serial number.

• Which attributes should not change? These attributes have read-only accessibility. Which should be changeable? Of those that are changeable, are there any where the value should not be seen by the management application, although it can be changed? This determines whether attributes are accessible as read-write or write-only.

• Does this attribute require a single value or does it require a table? That is, is it necessary to provide for multiple instances of that attribute's value to correctly model the component?

  
  Tip:

  Generally, tables of values are more flexible and allow easier expansion later.

• If this attribute is part of a table of values, what is the most sensible way to key into that table? Is more than one key needed?

  
  Tip:

  More than one key allows for multiple views of the same data, and provides more flexible manageability.

• Will the value for this attribute be provided by the component through the direct interface, or kept in the database?

  
  Tip:

  Remember that when values are kept only in the database, it can be difficult to keep them accurate and reliable because they rely on management applications for their values (which operate independently of each other). Instrumentation allows more up-to-date and reliable data.