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Book Details
Abstract
It is almost universally accepted that requirements documents for new or enhanced IT systems by business analysts should include a ‘data model’ to represent the information that has to be handled by the system.
Starting from first principles, this book will help business analysts to develop the skills required to construct data models through comprehensive coverage of entity relationship and class modelling, in line with, and beyond, the BCS Data Analysis syllabus.
It is almost universally accepted that requirements documents for new or enhanced IT systems by business analysts should include a ‘data model’ to represent the information that has to be handled by the system.
Starting from first principles, this book will help business analysts to develop the skills required to construct data models through comprehensive coverage of entity relationship and class modelling, in line with the BCS Data Analysis syllabus. In addition to covering the topics in the syllabus, the book also includes extra information of interest including data model quality and taking a requirement model into database design.
‘Anyone interested in a thoughtful, well-done text on how to do high-quality business analytical data modelling should definitely proceed with this book.’
David Hay
'As the roles of Data and Business Analysts become more intertwined, this book is timely in its publication. Businesses often fail to recognise information is a key resource and are confused by how it is presented or overwhelmed its complexity during use. Keith brings to the forefront of the readers mind the importance of communicating and analysing the relationship between Business, Information, Systems and Data, and the value in developing models cooperatively, gaining "consensus, not perfection“ from stakeholders. Simple everyday examples and analogies to support the readers understanding and make the subject more relatable are used.
I enjoyed reading the book and completing the exercises. An excellent learning aid for Analysts who are new to modelling or need reminding of good practice.'
Katie Walsh
'Keith Gordon’s wonderfully compact yet thorough introduction to business-friendly information modelling is a terrific contribution to the field. Globally, there’s a surge of interest in data modelling as a powerful tool for improving communication, especially with professionals who used to think business-oriented entity-relationship modelling didn't need to be in their tool kits. Business analysts, Agile developers, data scientists, big data specialists, and other professionals will all benefit from Keith’s work.'
Alec Sharp
'“Modelling Business Information” provides an introduction to data modeling, to the nomenclature used by common modeling techniques, and to techniques for representing common patterns. This is a useful book for business analysts who are creating the information model as well as for business and IT users who need to understand a data model.'
Keith W. Hare
Keith Gordon is an independent consultant and lecturer specialising in data management and business analysis. He has spent over 50 years in technical, education and training environments as an engineer, computer consultant, data manager, business analyst, education and training manager.
Table of Contents
Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
---|---|---|---|
Cover | Cover | ||
Copyright Page | vi | ||
CONTENTS | vii | ||
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES | x | ||
ABOUT THE AUTHOR | xiii | ||
FOREWORD | xv | ||
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | xviii | ||
GLOSSARY | xix | ||
INTRODUCTION | xxv | ||
PART 1: THE BASICS | 1 | ||
1 WHY BUSINESS ANALYSTS SHOULD MODEL INFORMATION | 3 | ||
WHAT IS BUSINESS ANALYSIS? | 3 | ||
INFORMATION AND DATA | 5 | ||
THE IMPORTANCE FOR A BUSINESS ANALYST OF UNDERSTANDING INFORMATION NEEDS | 6 | ||
THE ROLE OF MODELS IN BUSINESS ANALYSIS | 7 | ||
DATA MODELS AND DATA | 10 | ||
ENTITY RELATIONSHIP MODELLING | 11 | ||
CLASS MODELLING | 12 | ||
USE OF DATA MODELS IN BUSINESS ANALYSIS | 13 | ||
WHAT MAKES A GOOD DATA MODEL? | 14 | ||
INTRODUCING DATA ANALYSIS | 14 | ||
2 MODELLING THE THINGS OF INTEREST TO THE BUSINESS AND THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THEM | 16 | ||
ENTITIES AND OBJECTS | 16 | ||
NAMING OF ENTITY TYPES AND OBJECT CLASSES | 18 | ||
INTRODUCTION TO RELATIONSHIPS AND ASSOCIATIONS | 19 | ||
RELATIONSHIP NOTATION IN ENTITY RELATIONSHIP MODELS | 20 | ||
ASSOCIATION NOTATION IN UML CLASS MODELS | 22 | ||
DEGREES OF CARDINALITY AND OPTIONALITY | 24 | ||
MULTIPLE RELATIONSHIPS AND ASSOCIATIONS | 27 | ||
RECURSIVE RELATIONSHIPS AND REFLEXIVE ASSOCIATIONS | 29 | ||
EXERCISES FOR CHAPTER 2 | 30 | ||
3 MODELLING MORE COMPLEX RELATIONSHIPS | 32 | ||
THE PROBLEMS WITH MANY-TO-MANY RELATIONSHIPS AND ASSOCIATIONS | 32 | ||
RESOLVING ENTITY RELATIONSHIP MODEL MANY-TO-MANY RELATIONSHIPS | 33 | ||
RESOLVING CLASS MODEL MANY-TO-MANY ASSOCIATIONS | 35 | ||
THE ‘BILL OF MATERIALS’ STRUCTURE | 36 | ||
MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS AND ASSOCIATIONS | 39 | ||
GENERALISATION AND SPECIALISATION IN ENTITY RELATIONSHIP MODELS | 41 | ||
GENERALISATION AND SPECIALISATION IN CLASS MODELS | 43 | ||
AGGREGATION AND COMPOSITION | 46 | ||
EXERCISES FOR CHAPTER 3 | 48 | ||
4 DRAWING AND VALIDATING INFORMATION MODEL DIAGRAMS | 50 | ||
THE MODEL DRAWING PROCESS | 50 | ||
IDENTIFYING THE ENTITY TYPES OR THE OBJECT CLASSES | 51 | ||
IDENTIFYING THE RELATIONSHIPS OR ASSOCIATIONS | 53 | ||
DRAWING THE INITIAL DIAGRAM | 54 | ||
VALIDATING THE DIAGRAM | 56 | ||
EXERCISES FOR CHAPTER 4 | 63 | ||
5 RECORDING INFORMATION ABOUT THINGS | 65 | ||
REVISITING ENTITY TYPES, OBJECT CLASSES, RELATIONSHIPS AND ASSOCIATIONS | 65 | ||
INTRODUCTION TO ATTRIBUTES | 66 | ||
THE NAMING OF ATTRIBUTES | 69 | ||
ENTITY TYPE, OBJECT CLASS OR ATTRIBUTE? | 69 | ||
UNIQUE IDENTIFIERS | 72 | ||
DOMAINS | 74 | ||
THE UML EXTENDED ATTRIBUTE NOTATION | 75 | ||
SHOWING OPERATIONS ON CLASS MODELS | 77 | ||
EXERCISES FOR CHAPTER 5 | 79 | ||
6 RATIONALISING DATA USING NORMALISATION | 81 | ||
WHAT IS NORMALISATION? | 81 | ||
THE RELATIONAL MODEL OF DATA | 82 | ||
THE RULES OF NORMALISATION | 84 | ||
STARTING THE NORMALISATION PROCESS | 85 | ||
FIRST NORMAL FORM | 86 | ||
SECOND NORMAL FORM | 89 | ||
THIRD NORMAL FORM | 90 | ||
THE THIRD NORMAL FORM DATA MODEL | 94 | ||
CANDIDATE KEYS, PRIMARY KEYS AND ALTERNATE KEYS | 95 | ||
THE RELATIONSHIP OF NORMALISATION TO MODELLING | 95 | ||
EXERCISES FOR CHAPTER 6 | 96 | ||
PART 2: SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL | 97 | ||
7 OTHER MODELLING NOTATIONS | 99 | ||
THE IDEF1X NOTATION | 100 | ||
THE INFORMATION ENGINEERING NOTATION | 104 | ||
THE CHEN NOTATION | 104 | ||
COMPARISON OF THE NOTATIONS | 107 | ||
8 THE NAMING OF ARTEFACTS ON INFORMATION MODELS | 108 | ||
THE NAMING OF ENTITY TYPES OR OBJECT CLASSES | 108 | ||
THE NAMING OF DOMAINS | 110 | ||
THE NAMING OF ATTRIBUTES | 110 | ||
THE NAMING OF RELATIONSHIPS IN ELLIS-BARKER ENTITY RELATIONSHIP MODELS | 112 | ||
THE NAMING OF ASSOCIATIONS ON UML CLASS MODELS | 112 | ||
9 INFORMATION MODEL QUALITY | 114 | ||
GENERICITY AND SPECIFICITY IN MODELS | 114 | ||
THE NINE CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD DATA MODEL | 116 | ||
THE SIX PRINCIPLES OF HIGH QUALITY DATA MODELS | 118 | ||
THE FIVE DIMENSIONS OF DATA MODEL QUALITY | 120 | ||
THE LAYOUT OF MODELS | 121 | ||
10 CORPORATE INFORMATION AND DATA MODELS | 123 | ||
THE PROBLEMS | 123 | ||
PRINCIPLES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CORPORATE MODEL | 125 | ||
11 DATA AND DATABASES | 127 | ||
THE DATA LANDSCAPE | 127 | ||
DATABASES | 130 | ||
12 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE | 139 | ||
THE DATA WAREHOUSE | 139 | ||
THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL MODEL OF DATA | 140 | ||
DIMENSIONAL MODELLING | 141 | ||
13 ADVANCES IN SQL (OR WHY BUSINESS ANALYSTS SHOULD NOT BE IN THE WEEDS) | 144 | ||
THE BASICS OF SQL | 144 | ||
NEW SQL DATA TYPES | 145 | ||
THE FUTURE | 151 | ||
IMPLICATIONS FOR BUSINESS ANALYSTS AND INFORMATION MODELLERS | 151 | ||
14 TAKING A REQUIREMENTS INFORMATION MODEL INTO DATABASE DESIGN | 154 | ||
FIRST-CUT DATABASE DESIGN STAGE | 154 | ||
OPTIMISED DATABASE DESIGN STAGE | 155 | ||
APPENDICES | 157 | ||
APPENDIX A:\tTABLE OF EQUIVALENCES | 158 | ||
APPENDIX B:\tBIBLIOGRAPHY | 159 | ||
APPENDIX C:\t\x07SOLUTIONS TO THE EXERCISES | 162 | ||
INDEX | 172 | ||
Back Cover | 176 |