How to Model, Analyze, and Improve Business Data

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Classroom Apr 28 - 30, 2009 Pleasanton, CA $1195 Register
Overview

Data represents reality and everything there is to know about it. Understanding the data dimension is critical for IT projects. The primary tool for communicating about data is the data model (business entity relationship diagram) which helps business systems analysts and data analysts discover the static structure and business rules of the data.

In a very real sense if you get the data right, the rest will follow. If you get the data wrong, the system may never recover. In order for the data to be right, it must reflect how the business thinks about and uses its data. This information exists in two primary locations; user views (reports, screens, etc.) of the system and in the minds of the business personnel who may not know that they have this knowledge. Therefore, it is up to business systems and data analysts to capture and document this ’data about data’ in a meaningful way.

Objectives
  • State the pros and cons of data modeling
  • Describe business data models
  • Morph an existing data model into a future data model
  • Create a data model from requirements
  • Draw data model (entity relationship) diagrams
  • Build a data model based on existing system documentation
  • Generate and sustain a productive workshop environment
  • Define data attribute’s characteristics (metadata)
  • Assign attributes to the appropriate entity on the diagram
  • Evaluate a data model for full normalization and correctness
  • Modify an existing data model based on new requirements
  • Analyze user views, (screens, reports, etc.) to modify a data model

2 days

Target Audience

Business Analysts
Business Process Owners
Data Administrators
Data Analysts
Requirements Definition Specialists
System Analysts
Test Engineers
Anyone charged with managing, understanding and/or improving information use.

Pre-requisites

NONE

Expansions

How to Elicit (Gather), Write, and Analyze Business Requirements

How to Model, Analyze, and Improve Business Processes

Instructors

Our instructors have extensive experience in applying these techniques on projects with business experts from a wide variety of fields.