Data Model Patterns: Conventions of Thought

by David Hay

Overview

This is  the digital version of the printed book (Copyright © 1996).

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.

 

 

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

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780133488623
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	07/18/2013
Series:	Dorset House eBooks
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	17 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David C. Hay has pioneered 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. An internationally revered speaker at conferences on data management, modeling, and semantics, Dave is also author of Requirements Analysis: From Business Views to Architecture (Prentice-Hall, 2002).

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables         xiii

Foreword          xvii

Preface          xix

 

Chapter 1: Introduction         1

Data Modeling's Promise–And Failure   1

About Modeling Conventions   4

These Models and Your Organization   6

Who Should Read This Book?   7

 

Chapter 2: Data Modeling Conventions         10

Syntactic Conventions 10

Positional Conventions 16

Semantic Conventions 18

References 22

 

Chapter 3: The Enterprise and its World         23

Parties 23

Employee Assignments 28

Organizations 31

Addresses 33

Geographic Locations 36

Reporting Relationships 40

About Types 44

About Points of View 45

In Summary 45

 

Chapter 4: Things of the Enterprise         46

Products and Product Types 46

Inventory 51

Structure 54

Heterogeneous Entities 61

A Variation 65

References 67

 

Chapter 5: Procedures and Activities         68

Some Definitions 68

Dividing Activities 69

Work Orders 72

Labor Usage 72

Actual Asset Usage 76

Kinds of Work Orders 80

In Summary 94

 

Chapters 6: Contracts          95

Purchase Orders and Sales Orders 95

User Specifications 103

Contract Roles 106

Employment Contracts 108

Marketing Regions and Districts 108

Deliveries of Products and Services 111

Summary of Material Movements 112

In Summary 116

 

Chapter 7: Accounting         117

Basic Bookkeeping 118

Summarization 148

References 156

 

Chapter 8: The Laboratory         157

Samples, Tests, and Observations 157

Derived Observations 161

Test Types 163

Sample Methods 164

Testing for Material Composition 167

Tests as Activities 169

 

Chapter 9: Material Requirements Planning        173

Planning Finished Products 173

Determining Component Requirements 175

Firm Planned Orders 178

The Manufacturing Planning Model 179

The Planning Model 183

 

Chapter 10: Process Manufacturing        187

More about Assets 188

Structure and Fluid Paths 1901

Flows 192

Processes 192

Monitoring Processes 196

Tags and Measuring Points 197

The Laboratory 199

Translation of Tag Values 201

 

Chapter 11:            Documents        205

The Document 206

Structure 208

Roles 210

Authorship 210

Receipt of Documents 211

Other Roles 213

Subject and Contents 213

Versions 217

Variable Format Forms 218

Clinical Trials Observations 219

Material Safety Data Sheets 225

References 234

 

Chapter 12: Lower-Level Conventions        235

Things, Thing Types, and Categories 235

Addresses 239

Roles 242

Resources 243

Relationships 246

Variable Length Records 246

Usually One, Sometimes Many 251

Mathematical Expressions in the Data Model 252

The Universal Data Model 254

A Final Example 256

 

References        258

 

Bibliography        259

 

Index         263