Data Modeling for Everyone

Data Modeling is about gathering, documenting, and communicating the elements and structure of business information. What begins as a conceptual interplay of logical data units, through the application of relational theory, becomes the basis for creating a physical database design.

Data Modeling is a core skill for data professionals, and is a full time job for a small but growing number of IT practitioners. It is a crucial stage prior to good quality relational database design.

Data Modeling for Everyone is for those who:

Have no previous data modeling experience
Want to understand the role of the data modeler in database design

Need to know how to capture the essence of a system but don't know where to start
Want more than just the theory and learn best from real world experience
Require a book before other data design books – helping you develop a logical model rather than assuming one exists that needs to be implemented in a database

Data Modeling for Everyone provides a solid foundation in the following tools & techniques:

The different types of data modeling – enterprise, transactional, and dimensional
The stages of analysis – developing conceptual, logical, and physical models
What to do if you need to work with existing systems – reverse engineering and forensic analysis
General principles for converting logical models to physical ones
Modeling scope – focusing on what's important but allowing for future development of your model
Defining detail – entity relationship (E/R), key based, and fully attributed models
Documenting your understanding of the business in the model
Graphical data modeling, focusing on the IDEF1X notation