It is almost universally accepted that requirements document for new or enhanced IT systems by business analysts should include a ‘data model’ to represent the information that has to be handled by the system. Starting from first principles, this book will help business analysts to develop the skills required to construct data models through comprehensive coverage of entity relationship and class modelling, in line with the BCS Data Analysis syllabus. In addition to covering the topics in the syllabus, the book also includes extra information of interest including data model quality and taking a requirement model into database design.
Modelling Business Information - Entity relationship and class modelling for Business | Keith Gordon (Author)| BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
Table of Contents
PART 1 THE BASICS
Chapter 1. WHY BUSINESS ANALYSTS SHOULD MODEL INFORMATION
“What is business analysis?”, Information and data, The importance for a business analyst of understanding information needs, The role of models in business analysis, Data models and data, Entity relationship modelling, Class modelling, Use of data models in business analysis, What makes a good data model?, Introducing data analysis.
Chapter 2. MODELLING THE THINGS OF INTEREST TO THE BUSINESS AND THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THEM
Entities and objects, Naming of entity types and object classes, Introduction to relationships and associations, Relationship notation in entity relationship models, Association notation in UML class models, Degrees of cardinality and optionality, Multiple relationships and associations, Recursive relationships and reflexive associations, Exercises for Chapter 2.
Chapter 3. MODELLING MORE COMPLEX RELATIONSHIPS
The problems with many-to-many relationships and associations, Resolving entity relationship model many-to-many relationships, Resolving class model many-to-many associations, The ‘bill of materials’ structure, Mutually exclusive relationships and associations, Generalisation and specialisation in entity relationship models, Generalisation and specialisation in class models, Aggregation and composition, Exercises for Chapter 3.
Chapter 4. DRAWING AND VALIDATING INFORMATION MODEL DIAGRAMS
The model drawing process, Identifying the entity types or the object classes, Identifying the relationships or associations, Drawing the initial diagram, Validating the diagram, Exercises for Chapter 4.
Chapter 5. RECORDING INFORMATION ABOUT THINGS
Revisiting entity types, object classes, relationships and associations, Introduction to attributes, The naming of attributes, Entity type, object class or attribute, Unique identifiers, Domains, The UML extended attribute notation, Showing operations on class models, Exercises for Chapter 5.
Chapter 6. RATIONALISING DATA USING NORMALISATION
“What is normalisation?”, The relational model of data, The rules of normalisation, Starting the normalisation process, First normal form, Second normal form, Third normal form, The third normal form data model, Candidate keys, primary keys and alternate keys, The relationship of normalisation to modelling, Exercises for Chapter 6.
PART 2 SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
Chapter 7. OTHER MODELLING NOTATIONS
The IDEF1X notation, The Information Engineering notation, The Chen notation, Comparison of the notations.
Chapter 8. THE NAMING OF ARTEFACTS ON INFORMATION MODELS
The naming of entity types or object classes, The naming of domains, The naming of attributes, The naming of relationships in Ellis-Barker entity relationship models, The naming of associations on UML class models.
Chapter 9. INFORMATION MODEL QUALITY
Genericity and specificity in models, The nine characteristics of a good data model, The six principles of high quality data models, The five dimensions of data model quality, The layout of models.
Chapter 10. CORPORATE INFORMATION AND DATA MODELS
The problems, Principles for the development of a corporate model,
Chapter 11. DATA AND DATABASES
The data landscape, Databases.
Chapter 12. BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
The data warehouse, The multidimensional model of data, Dimensional modelling.
Chapter 13. ADVANCES IN SQL (OR WHY BUSINESS ANALYSTS SHOULD NOT BE IN THE WEEDS)
The basics of SQL, New SQL data types, The future, Implications for business analysts and information modellers.
Chapter 14. TAKING A REQUIREMENTS INFORMATION MODEL INTO DATABASE DESIGN
First-cut database design stage, Optimised database design stage.
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Table of equivalences
Appendix B: Bibliography
Appendix C: Solutions to the exercises
LINK FOR THE BOOK
