data modeling 101

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Data Modeling 101

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Top 5 Reasons Why Modeling is Important?

1. Faster, Error-free Database Analysis & Design

2. Improved Data Quality

3. Standards and Reuse

4. Traceability of Data Structures

5. Communication and Collaboration

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1. Faster, Error-free Database Analysis & Design

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SQL Dev Environment

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Modeling Environment

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2. Improved Data Quality

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Where does data quality go wrong?

1. Developers building systems with only their requirements in mind

2. Database validation code not enforcing proper business rules

3. Improper data entry by end users

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• What happens?1. Models become out-of-date

and no one uses them

2. Reports from out-of-date models are useless

3. No understanding what has changed

When modeling goes bad…

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• How do they do it?1. Use existing models to create new

systems

2. Keep models current with databases

3. Ultimately drive changes from the model

4. Communicate designs often

5. Automate the process

When modeling works well…

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3. Standards and Reuse

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Common Challenges with Standards

• No standards in place, i.e., you want it you build it

• Lots of standards in place, i.e., no standard standard in place

• You have a standard(s) in place, but no one knows about them

• Varchar(30)• Null

• Varchar(20)• Not Null

• Varchar(max)• Null

• Varchar(100)• Not Null

Customer Management

Finance Marketing Licensing

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Improving Standards

• Important thing is herding the cats and understanding the variances

• Have a central place people can review, edit and define standards

• Think about enterprise level standards, but still maintain "project-level" standards where applicable

Impact Analysis / Inheritance / Where Used

Repository

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4. Traceability of Data Structures

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Data Modeling

vs.

Data Architecture

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Data Modeling

• Smaller in scale, usually departmental

• One off project with a specific use case

• Limited audience

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Data Architecture

• Focused on enterprise level needs

• Holistic across many projects with an eye on reuse

• Wide audience with many levels of abstraction

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Modeling

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Architecture

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Discovery of Undocumented Data

gain understanding of data sources through reverse engineering and visualization

sales and customer databases

Data Architect Marketing

Finance & Accounting

E-commerce

accessunderstandingbenefit

Reverse Engineering& Infer domains

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5. Communication and Collaboration

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In a decentralized system

the benefits are only available to an individual or small group responsible for the model

databases

no accessno understandingno benefit

accessunderstandingbenefit

Data Architect

dbas, dev, business users, analysts, etc

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In a centralized system

the benefits can extend to every modeler, developer, dba, and business analyst

databases

accessunderstandingbenefit

accessunderstandingbenefit

dbas, dev, business users, analysts, etc

Data Architect

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Levels of abstraction

Contextual• Identify subject areas

Conceptual• Define the meaning of things in the organization

Logical• Describe the logical representation of properties

Physical• Represent the coding language on a specific development platform

Instance• Represent the live system and its whereabouts

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Communicate Technical Design

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Communicate with Executives

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Why Data Model?

Data modeling enables you to:

• Follow principles of object reuse (inclusion) by making structures as applicable across enterprise

• Provide graphical/lexical documentation of the business area under examination

• Permits analysis of data structures in isolation of business processes

• Identify areas of agreement and contention between business and technical parties

• Evolve an enterprise data foundation/architecture which underpins any Data Governance, MDM and Data Quality strategy

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Additional Resources

• http://docs.embarcadero.com/– Read Me file

– Quick Start Guide (Includes Installation and Tutorial Information)

– User Guide

– New Features Guide

• http://edn.embarcadero.com/– White Papers

– Articles

– Blogs

– Videos

– On-line Events

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Technical Support

• Contact Details

– Form: http://support.embarcadero.com/forms/

– Phone: +44 (0) 1628 684499

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Thank You

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