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
"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
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
David Hay was born in Grand Junction, Colorado, mid-way through the last century, when it was significant that his home town was some 250 miles from any city of any size. Back in those days, it mattered. His knowledge of the outside world was limited to magazines, movies, and the public library. (OK, he'd had some friends who'd been there, but he didn't believe a word of what they said.) It was all fiction. This valley was the whole world to him.
Then one beautiful September day, he took his first plane ride. Three hours later, he was by himself in the middle of Los Angeles International Airport at 5:00 on a Friday afternoon--trying to find his way to college.
Pretty much the rest of his life has been spent recovering from that afternoon.
The college was Claremont Men's College (now Claremont McKenna College) in the heart of the smoggy San Gabriel Valley. He remembers it as being pretty traumatic for him, but then this was Southern California in the late 1960s and life was traumatic--and exciting--for everyone. And this "outside world" business was pretty intriguing, too. So much so that when he graduated, he decided that the only logical thing to do was to move to New York City. Why not?
So, with no money, no job, no experience, and a degree in Philosophy, he set out to find his fortune in the big apple.
From there he discovered the rest of the world. Among other things, in 1973, he had a life-changing trip through Eastern Europe during the height of the Cold War. OK, that one wasn't quite so traumatic. He went back to Warsaw the following year to marry the single most wonderful woman he'd ever met.
He got his MBA from New York University the year after that.
In the late 1980s, he discovered data modeling. He took to it in a big way. But not the way most people did. Rather than viewing it as a vehicle for database design, he viewed it as a way to crack open the secrets of a company's semantics, and with that, its very nature. He discovered, among other things that if you model the underlying nature of a business, you have just modeled the underlying nature of pretty much any business.
From this experience came "Data Model Patterns: Conventions of Thought", a groundbreaking book describing a set of standard data models for standard business situations.
At about the same time, he created a consulting practice, Essential Strategies, Inc. (http://essentialstrategies.com), that offers data modeling services to a wide range of industries all over the world. He uses data modeling to support strategic planning, requirements analysis, analysis of semantics and business rules, and data warehouse design. His clients have included representatives of oil (both production and refining), pharmaceutical research, television and movies, banking, among others. In each case, he goes into the company knowing only what he'd learned as a customer, and within a very short time (thanks to the model patterns) understand more about its underlying structure than many who worked there.
In 2003, he wrote "Requirements Analysis: From Business Views to Architecture", his unique approach to that subject. This is a compendium of some thirty years' worth of analytical techniques, organized according to his version of John Zachman's "Framework for Enterprise Architecture".
Then, in 2006, he published "Data Model Patterns: A Metadata Map", the only book available that describes a complete schema of metadata--encompassing all aspects of both business and technical views. Moreover, it not only describes data from these various points of view, but also covers functions and processes, people and organizations, locations, timing, and motivation.
He has been an active participant in DAMA International, various Oracle user groups, the Object Management Group, and the Business Rules Group. He has given presentations on various data and methodological subjects all over the world.
A library of his articles may be found at articles.essentialstrategies.com. Thanks to the World-wide Web, his writings are read by practitioners from all over the world.
Not bad for a kid from Grand Junction, Colorado, eh?
This review is from: Data Model Patterns: Conventions of Thought (Hardcover)
I can understand why this book has gotten some mixed reviews. The author addresses many common modeling problems. But readers looking for instant solutions to those problems will probably be disappointed. Those looking for oop patterns are reading the wrong book. And anyone looking for a beginner's introduction to data modeling will be completely lost. But if you've been feeling as if your database designs could be better, but you're not sure how, you need this book.
Mr. Hay covers many real-world modeling problems. His discussions of these problems give incredible insight into the thought process of a professional data modeler. That is the true value of this book.
I first read this book about three years ago and now I am totally embarrassed by every database I created before. I've re-read it many times since and my copy is beaten and dog-eared. Thankfully, it's a hardcover book.
Make sure you read all the footnotes in the book. Some of them are hysterically funny.
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This review is from: Data Model Patterns: Conventions of Thought (Hardcover)
I've done some data modeling, and much more process modeling, so I was familiar with Mr. Hay's objectives with respect to data and restricting the model to logical representations of data, whatever that may be.
About six chapters into this book, I realize that while I could continue through to the end, I would likely find this more useful as a companion to a problem. I think the majority of non-academic readers, software practitioners if you will, will extract the necessary value from owning this book given a specific objective, i.e. I have to develop a work management model from scratch, and these are my (current) business rules.
The book covers so many kinds of models that it's entirely possible a reader will have no practical frame of reference, such as the chapter on accounting. Modern accounting software is primarily off-the-shelf, so developing a data model for it isn't something very common today. However, the smart developer understands that living "in the spaces between" software is a very good line of business, so to that end knowing what an ideal data model might have is certainly valuable ammunition when weighing vendor claims and evaluating solutions.
Because it lacks that sort of accessible readability, I am withholding a star. I'd have withheld a half-star if it were possible; I believe the book has great value to a developer or analyst.
Fred
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This review is from: Data Model Patterns: Conventions of Thought (Hardcover)
For years, I searched for a book that would bridge the gap between the theoretical principles of relational database design and the actual application of those principles to a real-world problem; a reference with practical, industry-specific examples of complete data models. David Hay's book is that, and much more. Data Model Patterns provides models for specific enterprise "types". But it goes a step further by generalizing many common entities and relationships to emphasize that, although details differ, there are striking similarities between analogous data structures across enterprises. Along the way, he points out some of the more common mistakes in data model design and how to avoid them (e.g. building "relationship" information into the structure of an entity or failing to recognize the distinction between the existance of an entity and the actual use of that entity). This book is packed with diagrams, descriptions, and analysis tips. It's contribution to my understanding of data model analysis and design is nothing less than transcendental. David, you should rename this book "Zen and the Art of Data Model Patterns"!
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