Information Modeling for Information Analysts

Database Design and Performance Tuning

Advanced Topics in Information Modeling

Training Rates

Scheduled Classes

If you are looking for the most effective information modeling training available, then contact us to schedule a class!

Did You Know?

We can tailor our presentations to fit your system development environment?  For example, our Information Modeling course can be presented in any of five different CASE tool dialects, and may be edited to suit the number of days you have available for training. These options come at no additional cost.

Gary Schuldt is also available for consulting projects. Please contact us for rates and schedules. 

Information Modeling for Information Analysts

Overview of IM-5: 5 Days (Chen notation)

The Discipline

Information Modeling is an analysis discipline that defines and structures business data. A completed Information Model:

• Shows the information architecture in terms of three components: entities, relationships, and attributes
• Records the business policies that apply to each component.
  

• Analyzing and defining business information in a structured manner
• Specifying the requirements for a database in a conceptual business model which is free from implementation technology bias
  

• E-R diagrams for first-cut modeling and graphic clarity
• Structured natural language definitions and descriptions for each modeling component
• Standard questions the analyst can use to elicit relevant business knowledge
• Expert-style heuristics for handling common modeling situations
• Completeness and consistency rules for entities and relationships
• Full-bodied relationships: n-ary, attribute-bearing, recursive
• Full attribute definition, including derivables
• Data structures in "entity-relationship normal form"
• Basis for a performance-based Access Model
• Readily translatable into a relational design.

The Seminar

• IM-5 teaches basic, practical techniques of Information Modeling. These techniques include over two dozen expert-style heuristics for discovering and modeling entities, relationships, and attributes, as well as multi-typing, aggregation, and generalization. About half of the class time is devoted to lectures and mini-exercises: A particular component of the model is first presented, together with procedures for building it. The participants then practice the technique on a short classroom exercise.
• The remaining half of the time is spent constructing an Information Model for a real-world business area. During these workshop sessions, the participant applies the analysis techniques of the discipline to extract relevant business data from several typical sources: natural language business descriptions; forms, screens, and reports--both existing and prototyped; data dictionaries; event dictionaries; current files; and other models.

During the seminar, the participants will

• Build a detailed Information Model for a hypothetical business
• Work both individually and as part of a group while constructing their models
• Present their models for class and instructor review.
• Attendance at the seminar is limited to 20 participants.

Objectives

Upon successful completion of the seminar, the participant will be able to

• State the major reasons for building an Information Model
• Apply the procedures and heuristics taught in class to organize business data into an integrated Information Model
• Evaluate the quality of an Information Model
• Relate Information Modeling to such associated activities as Strategic Data Planning, Function Modeling, Access Modeling, and Database Design.

Who Should Attend

The seminar is primarily directed toward

• Information Analysts who must analyze and organize business data for computer-based implementation
• Database Analysts who must specify the requirements for a database to support some area of business
• Applications Analysts who need a data-oriented modeling discipline to complement process or function-oriented disciplines such as Structured Analysis
• Business Users who must assist in defining requirements and preparing specifications for an Information System.

The seminar will also serve the needs of

• Database Designers who need a reading knowledge of the Information Model in order to transform it accurately into a workable database design
• Data Administrators for whom an Information Model can function as a dictionary-like definition of the data resource they must manage
• Methodologists who must integrate Information Modeling into an existing methodological framework
• CASE tool specialists who must provide automated support for system development.

Materials

• Each participant will receive a copy of the seminar visuals, as well as a copy of the course textbook Fundamentals of Database Systems by Elmasri/Navathe (Benjamin/Cummings, 1989, 751 pages).

Core Topics

1. The Information Systems Development Context

Placing Information Modeling within the Zachman framework; using the Information Model in follow-on access modeling and database design; levels of structural detail in the "business information model".

2. Information Modeling Overview

Review of format, content and semantics of the Information Model via an example; instance tables; the Information Model as a tool in business analysis; overview of technical activities involved in creating an Information Model.

3. Discovering Business Entities and Relationships--Part I

What is an "entity"? the difference between an entity and an attribute; What is a "relationship"?; real world sources for discovering entities and relationships: natural language business descriptions; forms, screens, and reports; heuristics for discovery, by source; testing potential entities and relationships.

4. Discovering Business Entities and Relationships--Part II

More heuristics for discovering entities and relationships, organized by real world source; how to handle the "scope entity".

5. Multi-typing--Super-types and Subtypes

The fundamental rules of classification and filing; definition of subtypes and super-types; representing multi-typisms in the model: the discriminator (partitioning attribute), coverage, and overlap; several heuristics for uncovering multi-typing situations.

6. Analyzing Business Relationships

Defining a business relationship: the "what", naming, the "why", create and delete business rules, entity participation, cardinality business rules; self-(recursive) relationships; more discovery and refinement heuristics; the evolution of relationships into entities.

7. Complex Attributes

How do you model multi-valued attributes? modeling composite attributes; rules for deciding: "Multi-valued attribute or entity?" multi-valued attributes in relational database design.

8. Modeling Business Entities

Describing a business entity: name, purpose, properties, create and delete rules; volume and growth; business identifiers and technical (dumb) identifiers; quality rules: Flavin's "well-defined entity".

9. Modeling Business Attributes

Attribute vs. data element; describing a business attribute: business characteristic represented, name, purpose, value source, structure, and business rule dependencies; derivable attributes; unique and identifying attributes; attribution as a consequence of the characteristic represented; best places to look for attributes.

10. Evaluating an Information Model

Quality tests: the well-defined entity and well-defined relationship; resolving "fuzzy" components; business analysis and database specification benefits.

11. Creating Normalized Data Structures

Normalization in the Information Model; relational data structures for basic business entities, business relationships, multi-valued attributes, and simple ("1-to-x") relationships.

12. Summary and Parting Shots

Information Modeling summary; skills we have learned; who needs Information Modeling and why?

Tangential Topics

TT1. Information Modeling, Information Engineering, and the Relational Model

Comparison between representations; CASE tool implementations.

TT2. Data Integration

The six essential ingredients for achieving data sharing; the role of the Information Model in "enterprise modeling".

TT3. The Analysis Activity

The essence of analysis; skills and abilities that make a good analyst.

TT4. Information Modeling and Function Modeling

The complementarity between Information Modeling and Function Modeling; techniques for using one model to build and check the other.

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