Updates
Latest Tweet
What's New?
Check out for latest innovation, a computer based training video collection
Like this Page
Data Modeling Essentials, Third Edition Review by Filipuci Bruno
An outstanding book
This is a book structured in three parts.
Part one addresses the basics in data modeling. The need for modeling when designing databases is explained and alternative modeling approaches such as ER and UML discussed. The ER approach is the one developed in detail. Usual data modeling concepts such as Classes, Generalization, Specialization, Attributes, Relationships, Normalization, etc. are introduced and explained here.
The chapter on primary keys discusses the different candidates for key selection and provides valuable guidelines for choosing them. A short chapter on extensions and alternatives to the ER approach, in which the UML notation is addressed, ends part one.
Part two is about the organization of the data modeling task and the data modeling cycle, from the requirements phase to the conceptual, then to the logical data models. Each phase is developed in detail and illustrated through sensibly chosen examples. Thorough pro and con argumentation is provided. How data modeling fits in the project perspective, the role of different actors involved - the business specialist, the data modeler, the database designer, etc. - and project organization matters are addressed too.
Part three addresses advanced normalization - BCNF, 4NF and 5NF - in terms that are as simple and accessible as reasonably possible, compared to other data modeling books that pretend achieving the same level of completeness. Modeling of time-dependent data and business rules, barely avoidable in real-life databases, is also covered.
A short chapter of 21 pages on data warehouses and data marts addresses OLAP data modeling. That's plenty, as the book mainly focuses on OLTP data modeling. Another short chapter whose purpose is to provide a quick overview of enterprise data modeling and of data management aspects in general ends the book.
This is a well-written, well-illustrated and complete book that I liked very much. I highly recommend it. Without doubt, it's an outstanding book written by capable and rigorous authors.
It's also a thick and dense book that beginners should precede by shorter, introductory readings.