Customer Reviews

Database Design for Smarties: Using UML for Data Modeling (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Database Modeling for Smarties is exactly that. This book captures the techniques that I have been using for a number of years but have not been able to capture concisely. I found the discussion of object-relational mapping very useful and would love to send copies to the database designers that I work with. The reading is easy and the only negative would be that the chapter on development team values & characteristics seems to be misplaced. However the chapter was good reading as an intermission in the middle of the book.

I would recommend this book. I have experience with database design (ORACLE) but object oriented design was more a mystery for me. Mr. Muller showed me that there is only a little step from entity-relationship modelling to modelling with UML. UML design also solves a lot of database design problems like reaching a 3rd (or higher) normal form. Another plus of this book is his in depth tutorial to apply the technics of UML to a relational database, to a object-relational and a object oriented database. Examples are for oracle databases and POET ODL for an object oriented database.

Mr. Muller provides a succinct explanation of the UML and how it applies to database models and the realities of the major DBMS on the market. He doesn't mince words, each line and paragraph are thought provoking and insightful. Choose a quiet place to read and dive in!

This is an excellent tutorial to using UML and sound object-oriented techniques for the express purpose of designing data models for a database. Well written, it deserves a place on every database designer's bookshelf.

This is perhaps the best book I've read about databases and UML. Muller provides insight about different RDBMS's and ORDMS's for each subject. The various characteristics of Oracle, Sybase and others are discussed in context to the subject of using UML to design databases. This is not a sales pitch for one product or another. My only complaints: there's no errata (though I'm not sure there needs to be one) and there's no online forum at the publishers site. I've enjoyed reading this book, Muller has kept this rather dry subject interesting.

Excellent intermediate text, but you should know at least the basic Universal Modeling Language symbols and have some knowledge of database architectures.
I read it when I'd been programming Oracle for a few months and wanted to learn UML as well as more about db design. What a deal, the same two topics in one book!
I came away with a deeper, and useful, understanding of both the structure of databases, and some practical uses for UML.

Perhaps I should have read more into the title, but this book is really just an intro to UML. I was looking for a DB architecture book to boost my design skills but instead I got a basic UML book that just happens to be applied to data modeling. If your looking for a book on database design, look elsewhere. If your looking for a book on understanding UML applied to databases, pick this one up.

If you are looking for advanced SQL-Server techniques, this book is not TOO bad. It is a good starting point for those who have not had the opportunity to learn from experts or gain a lot of knowledge from first-hand experience already. But, there is nothing very earth-shattering in this book.

I have found more advanced techniques for T-SQL set-based operations, algorithm development, and other "smartie" type SQL development things on some public websites that are more impressive than what is in this book, and that go well beyond what is in this book. Just search Google for things like "sql server set-based algorithms" or similar and you may stumble upon some much freely available and useful techniques that apply to real-world situations. But, the book is a good read for getting some ideas flowing in your brain perhaps.

The bottom line is that this book is certainly better than most SQL-Server books on the market (since many others are so often essentially just a SQL-Server help-files reprint), but it just does not strike me as very advanced (techniques) given what all I have seen and worked with elsewhere.

I always wondered where I was supposed to go next after I finished my object model and stood at the edge of the OO world; how I would get from there to the world of relational database design? Now I know! The world is indeed round, and OOA, OOD and UML actually lead you right through the land of RDB design. I've actually built large projects just feeling my way through this step, but now I know that this approach is valid, theoretically sound, and will even lead me to the nirvana of fifth normal form without pain!

This book is turgid and poorly written. I could not manage to get more than 1/2 way through the text as the concepts are poorly explained and the use of UML is surprisingly bad.

To summarise:

Poor use of UML
Concepts and ideas badly explained.
Difficult to read.

A colleague (an oracle DBA) did not even manage to get as far as I did before giving up!