Database Modeling with Microsoft® Visio for Enterprise Architects (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems) [Paperback]

Terry Halpin (Author), Ken Evans (Author), Pat Hallock (Author), Bill Maclean (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2003 | ISBN-10: 1558609199 | ISBN-13: 978-1558609198 | Edition: 1

This book is for database designers and database administrators using Visio, which is the database component of Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET for Enterprise Architects suite, also included in MSDN subscriptions. This is the only guide to this product that tells DBAs how to get their job done. Although primarily focused on tool features, the book also provides an introduction to data modeling, and includes practical advice on managing database projects. The principal author was the program manager of VEA's database modeling solutions.

· Explains how to model databases with Microsoft® Visio for Enterprise Architects (VEA), focusing on tool features.
· Provides a platform-independent introduction to data modeling using both Object Role Modeling (ORM) and Entity Relationship Modeling (ERM), and includes practical advice on managing database projects.
· Additional ORM models, course notes, and add-ins available online.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

Learn database modeling using ORM. Perfect for users of Visual Studio .NET for Enterprise Architects and subscribers to MSDN.

About the Author

Dr. Terry Halpin is a professor at Northface University. He has led database research teams at several companies including Visio Corporation and Microsoft Corporation, where he worked on the conceptual and logical database modeling technology in Microsoft Visio for Enterprise Architects. His publications include over 100 technical papers and five books.

Ken Evans has taught and applied ORM in English and French for 10 years. His know-how in data and process modeling and complex systems management comes from over 30 years in industry, including international jobs with IBM, EDS, Honeywell Controls, and Plessy and clients among the Fortune 500.

Patrick Hallock, M.S., is the founder of InConcept, a consulting firm, and teaches object modeling throughout the United States. He has been in the industry for 30 years, focusing on database design, with an emphasis on ORM.

Bill MacLean, CPA, is an independent consultant and teacher who has worked with relational databases for over 15 years, and consulted in database design for the last 9. He believes that the purpose of a data model is to turn business requirements into buildable specifications.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 425 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 1 edition (August 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558609199
• ISBN-13: 978-1558609198
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,067,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written - a pleasure to use, December 27, 2003

By 

Maria (the UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Database Modeling with Microsoft® Visio for Enterprise Architects (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems) (Paperback)

This book allows you to make the most of the database modeling aspect of Visio for Enterprise Architects (VEA).
For me finding my way around a new design environment is always time consuming, but following along with the first few chapters made it relatively painless this time. The step-by-step sequences contain not only the usual click this / type that instructions, but often also the reason WHY things are done that way. Sometimes the instructions even anticipate where a newcomer might go wrong. Here is an example from the section that introduces the user interface: "If you unxpectedly get a screen that looks like Figure 3-12 (a screendump with the the menu, toolbar and not much else) you have accidentally hidden the database task pane and should click on View > Task Pane to return to the database menu ...".

The book is carefully organised, and you are guided from a general introduction via installation to the various modeling and reverse-engineering activities, with a nice balance of general duscussion and detailed examples. For complex models there are suggestions on using layers to help with documentation and presentations, and on how to make the most of the built-in reports.
The book shows you how to use the default settings in order to make VEA do as much work for you as possible; it then shows you where and how you can best override the defaults to fine-tune your design. Sometimes a seemingly simple change can have consequences further down the line and the book points out where you have to be careful and why. If you want to go for round-trip maintenance this book helps you to organise your models to make the process as straightforward as possible.

If you are new to Object Role Modeling (ORM) then you will find enough here to show you how powerful it is, and to start using it straight away. If you do not wish to use ORM you can stay with ER models and still be well catered for.

I found the explanation of how conflicts are resolved when you synchronise the model and the physical schema after making changes in one (or both!) of them especially helpful. Being aware of the three-way synchronisation process goes a long way to understand the information presented by the wizards.

There are many useful hints all through the book, like this one: "The physical validation page of the Generate Wizard is the most likely place for errors to occur during DDL generation. Platform specific rules, such as object name lenghth, reserved words, characters, etc, are not enforced during the modeling phase prior to DDL generation. It is thus possible for a model with no conceptual or logical errors to fail physical validation".

The index has been constructed with care, the diagrams are clean and helpful and screen shots are used where appropriate. There is also a handy section with the various ORM, Logical Model and IDEFIX diagram elements.
Best of all, the book opens flat so I can use it while I am working without the need for paperweights, bulldog clips or elbows!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of a kind VEA book, September 28, 2005

By 

Lee Cichanowicz "Learning all the time" (Harrisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Database Modeling with Microsoft® Visio for Enterprise Architects (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems) (Paperback)

The title is not misleading; you just have to read the whole title. :] Reading the Editorial Review/ Book Description reinforces the title, so you know what you are getting here. Then, you can view the whole Table of Contents right here on Amazon. Finally, you can search the book and read excerpts. In case all of those mislead you, this is a book about using Visio to model databases.

As far as I know, there is no other book that takes on this subject, and this one does a good job of it.

I knew how to draw ER diagrams on paper and with simple diagramming tools, but it's a big leap to getting them drawn in Visio--especially if you want Visio to properly generate a physical model in SQL Server. The book really helps bridge that gap.

6 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Misleading Title, July 6, 2004

By 

Robert J. Neville Jr. (Westerville, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Database Modeling with Microsoft® Visio for Enterprise Architects (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems) (Paperback)

The title is very misleading in that the book's main focus is not on Database Modeling but the use of Visio and reverse engineering. There are very generic references to ORM and UML.

The more appropriate title should have been "Microsoft Visio for Database Modeling".

It's a great user's manual for Microsoft Visio for Enterprise Architects.

This book in combination with Information Modeling and Relational Databases: From Conceptual Analysis to Logical Design is a great combo.