Parties

The Parties pattern creates elements and a Class diagram that models the concept of a party which is a generalization of Person and Organization. 'People and Organizations share many attributes and relationships to other entities. A corporation is after all, a legal person. Both people and organizations can be described by Name and Address, and both may be party to contracts. For this reason, while Person and Organization are useful entities, so too is the super-set of the two, which we will here call Party.' The pattern further specializes the Organization entity into a number of entities representing the types of organizations.

Figure 1. Shows a Class diagram for Parties that describes the important elements and relationships defining Party and Party Types.
What is its purpose?
The purpose of the pattern is to allow a modeler to create a generic representation of both individual people and organizations by using a more general concept called Party. 
When can it be used?
The pattern is typically used by analysts, information modelers and architects in the analysis phase of an initiative or at the time the Enterprise Information and Data models are being formulated.
How to work with the pattern
The following is a list of some things you may want to do when working with this pattern.
•	Change the name of the diagram to suit the initiative or enterprise.
Add or remove the entities that specialize the organization Class.
Create additional Attributes for the entities in the model to suit the initiative or enterprise. 

Where to next
The following is a list of some of the next steps available when applying the pattern.
•	The Class diagram could be transformed into a model of an XML Schema.
The Class diagram could be transformed into a model of a relational database.
High quality documentation could be created automatically from the model using the Document Generator facility.
Where to get help
The following help topics will assist you learn about how to work with this pattern.
Class Diagram
Element Discussions
Enterprise Model Patterns Book
Tools you may find useful
The following are some of the tools that will be helpful when working with this pattern.
Document Generator
The Document Generator is a powerful facility in Enterprise Architect that allows a Database Engineer or other stakeholder to create high quality corporate or technical documentation directly from the model, suitable for internal or external audiences. For more details see the Documentation help topic.
Specification View
The Specification View can be used as a way of working with the Components and Interfaces particularly when there are a large number of elements as is typically the case when describing a system of any appreciable size. For more details see the Specification View help topic.
Element Discussions
The Element Discussion facility is a fully featured collaboration tool allowing modelers and model viewers and reviewers to communicate with each other directly inside the repository. Modelers using the full client or occasional viewers using WebEA can both post and reply to discussions and communicate and engage in chat. For more details see the Element Discussions help topic.
Model Transformation
The Model Transformation facility allows a modeler to transform a Conceptual data model to a Logical data model and in turn a Logical Data Model to a Physical Data Model. The transformations are driven by user-defined or built-in templates. This facility will save time and effort and reduce the possibility of errors. For more details see the Model Transformation help topic.
Hand Drawn and Whiteboard Diagrams
The Hand Drawn and Whiteboard Mode are display options available for any diagram that changes a system-drawn diagram to appear as though it was drawn by hand and, optionally, hand drawn on a whiteboard. It is a powerful device to engage an audience by presenting the diagram in a rough and more immediate style giving the impression that it is just a sketch that can be changed. For more details see the Hand Drawn and Whiteboard Mode help topic.
Attribution
The definition and details of this pattern are attributed to David C. Hay and first appeared in his seminal work Data Modeling Patterns and later in Enterprise Model Patterns.