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copied!<p>I fear, I can not give the "common pattern" how to deal with this problem. But I also think, that there is not the "one and only" pattern at all.</p> <p>The reason is, that modelling is somehow "fuzzy". I remember some rather similar modelling problem in a German computer magazine. It was a kind of contest and they showed the different solutions they got send in. The solutions where totally different, yet all of them where somehow valid. I think that it also depends on the details of the problem at hand. Sometimes a "lean" solution is beautiful ... in other cases, the "big, fat, grand" solution must be done to meet the projects needs ...</p> <p>Such as, modelling is still a creative task with many free parameters.</p> <p>Off course there are some "meta-patterns" which are agreed upon. For example in the book <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_Patterns_(book)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">"Design patterns"</a> by the famous "Gang of Four" and also many others available. But still many problems exist, where no agreed "best" solution exists.</p> <p>In your case, it would be possible to use sub-classing (this is equivalent to specialization). It could also be possible to make "Supplier" etc. just an interface which might/might not be supported by a company (this could be seen as optional specialization from an abstract Entity). But it is also possible to use composition for the same problem. A Role could be an object (Entity) that is linked by the company (e.g. with a relation "has-role").</p>

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