In my customer meetings I am often asked about the importance of Data Modelling. In this presentation we will look at the Top 5 reasons of why Data Modelling is important, including the difference between Data Modelling and Data Architecture.

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Data Modeling 101

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Top 5 Reasons Why Modeling is Important?
1. Faster, Error-free Database Analysis & Design
2. Improved Data Quality
3. Standards and Reuse
4. Traceability of Data Structures
5. Communication and Collaboration

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1. Faster, Error-free Database Analysis & Design

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SQL Dev Environment
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Modeling Environment
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2. Improved Data Quality

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Where does data quality go wrong?
1. Developers building systems with only their
requirements in mind
2. Database validation code not enforcing proper
business rules
3. Improper data entry by end users

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• What happens?
1. Models become out-of-date
and no one uses them
2. Reports from out-of-date
models are useless
3. No understanding what has
changed
When modeling goes bad…

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• How do they do it?
1. Use existing models to create new
systems
2. Keep models current with
databases
3. Ultimately drive changes from the
model
4. Communicate designs often
5. Automate the process
When modeling works well…

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3. Standards and Reuse

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Common Challenges with Standards
• No standards in place, i.e., you want it you build it
• Lots of standards in place, i.e., no standard standard in place
• You have a standard(s) in place, but no one knows about them
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• Null
• Varchar(20)
• Not Null
• Varchar(max)
• Null
• Varchar(100)
• Not Null
Customer
Management
Finance Marketing Licensing

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Improving Standards
• Important thing is herding the cats and understanding the variances
• Have a central place people can review, edit and define standards
• Think about enterprise level standards, but still maintain "project-level"
standards where applicable
Impact Analysis /
Inheritance /
Where Used
Repository

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4. Traceability of Data Structures

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Data Modeling
vs.
Data Architecture

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Data Modeling
• Smaller in scale, usually departmental
• One off project with a specific use case
• Limited audience

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Data Architecture
• Focused on enterprise level needs
• Holistic across many projects with an eye on reuse
• Wide audience with many levels of abstraction

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Modeling

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Architecture

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Discovery of Undocumented Data
gain understanding of data sources through reverse
engineering and visualization
sales and customer
databases
Data Architect Marketing
Finance & Accounting
E-commerce
access
understanding
benefit
Reverse Engineering
& Infer domains

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5. Communication and Collaboration

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In a decentralized system
the benefits are only available to an individual or
small group responsible for the model
databases
no access
no understanding
no benefit
access
understanding
benefit
Data Architect
dbas, dev, business
users, analysts, etc

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In a centralized system
the benefits can extend to every modeler, developer,
dba, and business analyst
databases
access
understanding
benefit
access
understanding
benefit
dbas, dev, business
users, analysts, etc
Data Architect

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Levels of abstraction
Contextual
• Identify subject areas
Conceptual
• Define the meaning of things in the organization
Logical
• Describe the logical representation of properties
Physical
• Represent the coding language on a specific development platform
Instance
• Represent the live system and its whereabouts

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Communicate Technical Design

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Communicate with Executives

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Why Data Model?
Data modeling enables you to:
• Follow principles of object reuse (inclusion) by making structures as
applicable across enterprise
• Provide graphical/lexical documentation of the business area under
examination
• Permits analysis of data structures in isolation of business processes
• Identify areas of agreement and contention between business and
technical parties
• Evolve an enterprise data foundation/architecture which underpins
any Data Governance, MDM and Data Quality strategy
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Additional Resources
• http://docs.embarcadero.com/
– Read Me file
– Quick Start Guide (Includes Installation and Tutorial Information)
– User Guide
– New Features Guide
• http://edn.embarcadero.com/
– White Papers
– Articles
– Blogs
– Videos
– On-line Events

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Technical Support
• Contact Details
– Form: http://support.embarcadero.com/forms/
– Phone: +44 (0) 1628 684499

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Thank You
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