Data Model Patterns: Conventions of Thought - Softcover

Hay, David C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0932633749 ISBN 13: 9780932633743

Publisher: Dorset House, 2011

Synopsis

Learning the basics of a modeling technique is not the same as learning how to use and apply it. To develop a data model of an organization is to gain insights into its nature that do not come easily. Indeed, analysts are often expected to understand subtleties of an organization's structure that may have evaded people who have worked there for years.

Here's help for those analysts who have learned the basics of data modeling (or "entity/relationship modeling") but who need to obtain the insights required to prepare a good model of a real business.

Structures common to many types of business are analyzed in areas such as accounting, material requirements planning, process manufacturing, contracts, laboratories, and documents.

Topics

In each chapter, high-level data models are drawn from the following business areas:

-The Enterprise and Its World
-The Things of the Enterprise
-Procedures and Activities
-Contracts
-Accounting
-The Laboratory
-Material Requirements Planning
-Process Manufacturing
-Documents
-Lower-Level Conventions

About this title

About the Author

David C. Hay has pioneered in the use of process and data models to support strategic planning, requirements analysis, and system design since the late 1970s. In 1993, Dave founded the Houston-based consulting firm Essential Strategies, and, through it, developed enterprise models for many industries, including pharmaceutical research, oil refining and production, film and television, and nuclear energy. His work has been instrumental in identifying the fundamental structure of metadata and has helped hundreds of practitioners address issues of semantics in organization.

Using the relatively simple structures hidden in apparently complex situations, Dave developed the basis for Data Model Patterns: Conventions of Thought. A subsequent work, Data Model Patterns: A Metadata Map, provides comprehensive views of both business and technical metadata; a third work, Enterprise Model Patterns: Describing the World, is a sequel to Data Model Patterns and describes and extensively models more-complex patterns.

An internationally revered speaker at conferences on data management, modeling, and semantics, Dave is also author of Requirements Analysis: From Business Views to Architecture, a comprehensive review of requirements analysis techniques. He lives in Houston with his wife, Jola, and, in increasingly rare spare time, pursues the ancient Japanese art of Origami, folding square pieces of paper into flowers, dinosaurs, or any of myriad other figures -- without cutting, pasting, or swearing.

Review

"Would you rather not reinvent the wheel? Do you have better things to do with your time? If so, you may be interested in David Hay's book Data Model Patterns. . . . Hay does an excellent job of extracting the essence of each 'thing' in order to deal with it as more of an abstraction. This results in much simpler and more powerful data models that are less dependent on cosmetic variation. . . . Once you begin to see these new patterns, you will have a new way of viewing the world of data." --Patrick O'Brien, St. Louis DAMA Newsletter

"Occasionally a book comes along that can be considered a classic; that isn't tied to any particular product or version. David Hay's book, Data Model Patterns: Conventions of Thought, is such a book. . . . This is a book that can and should be used for years. No matter what your job function in the RDBMS industry, you'll find great value from this book. It should be mandatory reading before starting any major data modeling or application development task. No other author has gone beyond the theoretical methodology of creating a data model to actually present and analyze real-world models that we can use every day. This book is well written and well illustrated with numerous examples of the models discussed. This is a 'must buy' for your professional library." --Warren Capps, Oracle Developer

". . . one of the practical values of your book is the set of 'ready to use' models for the most typical applications in many industries. . . . You express your ideas in very simple and easy to understand language. This is how I think such books should be written." --Mark Gokman, New York Power Authority

Edition details

• Publisher: Dorset House
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0932633749
• ISBN 13: 9780932633743
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 268