This is the digital version of the printed book (Copyright © 1996).
Learning the basics of a modeling technique is not the same as learning how to use and apply it. To develop a data model of an organization is to gain insights into its nature that do not come easily. Indeed, analysts are often expected to understand subtleties of an organization's structure that may have evaded people who have worked there for years.
Here's help for those analysts who have learned the basics of data modeling (or "entity/relationship modeling") but who need to obtain the insights required to prepare a good model of a real business.
Structures common to many types of business are analyzed in areas such as accounting, material requirements planning, process manufacturing, contracts, laboratories, and documents.
In each chapter, high-level data models are drawn from the following business areas:
- The Enterprise and Its World
- The Things of the Enterprise
- Procedures and Activities
- Contracts
- Accounting
- The Laboratory
- Material Requirements Planning
- Process Manufacturing
- Documents
- Lower-Level Conventions
Table of Contents:
Figures and Tables xiii Foreword xvii
Preface xix
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
Data Modeling's Promise–And Failure 1
About Modeling Conventions 4
These Models and Your Organization 6
Who Should Read This Book? 7
Chapter 2: Data Modeling Conventions 10
Syntactic Conventions 10
Positional Conventions 16
Semantic Conventions 18
References 22
Chapter 3: The Enterprise and its World 23
Parties 23
Employee Assignments 28
Organizations 31
Addresses 33
Geographic Locations 36
Reporting Relationships 40
About Types 44
About Points of View 45
In Summary 45
Chapter 4: Things of the Enterprise 46
Products and Product Types 46
Inventory 51
Structure 54
Heterogeneous Entities 61
A Variation 65
References 67
Chapter 5: Procedures and Activities 68
Some Definitions 68
Dividing Activities 69
Work Orders 72
Labor Usage 72
Actual Asset Usage 76
Kinds of Work Orders 80
In Summary 94
Chapters 6: Contracts 95
Purchase Orders and Sales Orders 95
User Specifications 103
Contract Roles 106
Employment Contracts 108
Marketing Regions and Districts 108
Deliveries of Products and Services 111
Summary of Material Movements 112
In Summary 116
Chapter 7: Accounting 117
Basic Bookkeeping 118
Summarization 148
References 156
Chapter 8: The Laboratory 157
Samples, Tests, and Observations 157
Derived Observations 161
Test Types 163
Sample Methods 164
Testing for Material Composition 167
Tests as Activities 169
Chapter 9: Material Requirements Planning 173
Planning Finished Products 173
Determining Component Requirements 175
Firm Planned Orders 178
The Manufacturing Planning Model 179
The Planning Model 183
Chapter 10: Process Manufacturing 187
More about Assets 188
Structure and Fluid Paths 1901
Flows 192
Processes 192
Monitoring Processes 196
Tags and Measuring Points 197
The Laboratory 199
Translation of Tag Values 201
Chapter 11: Documents 205
The Document 206
Structure 208
Roles 210
Authorship 210
Receipt of Documents 211
Other Roles 213
Subject and Contents 213
Versions 217
Variable Format Forms 218
Clinical Trials Observations 219
Material Safety Data Sheets 225
References 234
Chapter 12: Lower-Level Conventions 235
Things, Thing Types, and Categories 235
Addresses 239
Roles 242
Resources 243
Relationships 246
Variable Length Records 246
Usually One, Sometimes Many 251
Mathematical Expressions in the Data Model 252
The Universal Data Model 254
A Final Example 256
References 258
Bibliography 259
Index 263
About the Author :
David C. Hay has pioneered the use of process and data models to support strategic planning, requirements analysis, and system design since the late 1970s. In 1993, Dave founded the Houston-based consulting firm Essential Strategies, and, through it, developed enterprise models for many industries, including pharmaceutical research, oil refining and production, film and television, and nuclear energy. His work has been instrumental in identifying the fundamental structure of metadata and has helped hundreds of practitioners address issues of semantics in organization. An internationally revered speaker at conferences on data management, modeling, and semantics, Dave is also author of Requirements Analysis: From Business Views to Architecture (Prentice-Hall, 2002).
