OVERVIEW

 

The majority of data management practitioners--be they novices or experienced, users, developers, or vendors--know only products/tools (if at all). They operate in "cookbook" mode,  without knowing and understanding the fundamental concepts and principles underlying their field, e.g. modeling, levels of representation, the meaning of databases, DBMS vs. application functions, data independence, and so on. The industry neither requires, nor does the educational system provide education--as distinct from product training--on data fundamentals, which are ignored, distorted, or dismissed in daily practice as "just theory" and, therefore, without practical value.

 

Consequently,          the IT industry operates like the fashion industry. Uneducated practitioners are unable to see through the misconceptions and fallacies promoted as new "paradigms" and "models", and the ensuing technologies and products proliferated by marketeers, "experts", and the trade press, all of whom suffer from an equal lack of foundation knowledge. Do you, for example, know what the following are, and which we need, or do not? The problem is so acute that, claims of progress notwithstanding, technology is actually regressing!

 

The purpose of this seminar is to provide an understanding of the nature and objective of one core component of the foundation, namely business (or conceptual) modeling for database design.

 

 

OBJECTIVES

 

·   The purpose and nature of the modeling and database design process

·   Levels of representation and user vs. system meaning

·   Conceptual (business) modeling

·   The concept of a data model, and informal to formal mapping

·   Logical models and database design

·   Understanding database management

 

 

OUTLINE

 

Ø       WHAT MEANING MEANS

·         Structure As Meaning

§   Example: Text

§   Example: Graphics

§   Example: Table

·         Levels of Representation

·         The Modeling/Design Process

 

Ø       CONCEPTUAL LEVEL

·         Conceptual (Business) Models

§   Components

§   Characteristics

·         Structure As Means

·         Alternative Representation

·         Business Rules

·         User-Understood Meaning

·         Data = Assertions Of Fact

·         Users Vs. System Meaning

·         Meaningful Formalism

 

Ø       LOGICAL LEVEL

·         Logic

·         Formal Constructs

·         Data Model

·         Relational Model

§   Structure

§   Informal Interpretation

§   Formal Representation

§   Integrity

§   DBMS-Understood Meaning

§   Manipulation

·         Logical Models

§   Components

§   Characteristics

§   Informal To Formal Mapping

·         Database Design

·         Keeping Models Straight

·         Database Management

§   Database Defined

§   DBMS Defined

·         Necessary And Sufficient

·         A Fundamental Framework

 

AUDIENCE  

 

Anybody involved in data management, technical and not technical. Some data management background may or may not be helpful. The target audience includes (but is not limited to):

 

§   DBMS designers, implementers, and other vendor personnel

§   Database consultants

§   Data and database administrators

§   Product evaluators, acquirers and deployers

§   IT managers

§   Information modelers and database designers

§   Application developers and deployers

§   Data warehouse implementers

§   Members of the trade media covering data management

§   Academics specializing in data management topics

§   Students, graduate and undergraduate

 

 

DOCUMENTATION

 

Workbook containing the instructor’s slides, and PRACTICAL DATABASE FOUNDATIONS paper #4, which serves as text for this seminar.

 

 

INSTRUCTOR

 

Fabian Pascal has a national and international reputation as an independent technology analyst, consultant, author and lecturer specializing in data management. He was affiliated with Codd & Date and for 20 years held various analytical and management positions in the private and public sectors, has taught and lectured at the business and academic levels, and advised vendor and user organizations on data management technology, strategy and implementation. Clients include IBM, Census Bureau, CIA, Apple, Borland, Cognos, UCSF, and IRS. He is founder, editor and publisher of DATABASE DEBUNKINGS, a web site dedicated to dispelling persistent fallacies, flaws, myths and misconceptions prevalent in the IT industry. Together with Chris Date he has recently launched the PRACTICAL DATABASE FOUNDATIONS series of papers that also serve as text for his seminars. Author of three books, he has published extensively in most trade publications, including DM Review, Database Programming and Design, DBMS, Byte, Infoworld and Computerworld. He is author of the contrarian columns Against the Grain, Setting Matters Straight, and Test Your Foundation Knowledge.