Corporation with independent lines of business, such as a consulting division, a real estate division, and a retail sales division, may have separate marketing, sales, and data-processing groups within each of those divisions. At the center of the firm is a small group focused on functional services, such as accounting, finance, and human resources. Usually, users in a division need to access only the resources in their own division. There are times when an employee needs access to resources in another division, which requires that the master domains connect to each other.
Figure 2.5 Multiple Independent Lines of Business domain model
A multiple master-domain model is the best choice for this case because the organization lacks a data-processing staff in its central division. The domain model can be constructed to acknowledge the data-processing autonomy of divisions as they exist. Trust relationships can be created between the master domains, as necessary.