Modelling Business Information: Entity relationship and class modelling for Business Analysts

by Keith Gordon

Overview

It is almost universally accepted that requirements documents 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, and beyond, the BCS Data Analysis syllabus.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780173559
Publisher:	BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
Publication date:	09/05/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	202
File size:	25 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Keith Gordon is an independent consultant and lecturer specialising in data management and business analysis. He has spent over 50 years in technical, education and training environments as an engineer, computer consultant, data manager, business analyst, education and training manager.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part 1: The Basics
Chapter 1: Why business analysts should model information 
Chapter 2: Modelling the things of interest to the business and the relationships between them
Chapter 3: Modelling more complex relationships  
Chapter 4: Drawing and validating data model diagrams 
Chapter 5: Recording information about things 
Chapter 6: Rationalising data using normalisation 
Part 2: Supplementary Material
Chapter 7: Other modelling notations
Chapter 8: The naming of artefacts on information models
Chapter 9: Information model quality
Chapter 10: Corporate information and data models
Chapter 11: Data and databases
Chapter 12: Business intelligence
Chapter 13: Advances in SQL (or why business analysts should not be in the weeds)
Chapter 14: Taking a requirements information model into database design
Appendix A: Table of equivalences
Appendix B: Bibliography
Appendix C: Solutions to the exercises 

Editorial Reviews

'“Modelling Business Information” by Keith Gordon, is aimed at those who are new to business analysis or information modelling. Keith draws on a wealth of experience in information management, both as a practitioner, and as a lecturer with the Open University in his writing.

The first six chapters provide an accessible and clear foundation in the topic covering the reasons for developing information models, the basic elements of entity-relationship diagrams, how to develop an information model from basic information requirements, and finally how to normalise existing data. I particularly like that it uses two graphical notations, the Barker-Ellis notation, noted for its readability, and the ubiquitous Unified Modelling Language notation, which helps to demonstrate that there are different notations that entity-relationship models can be developed in. This first part of the book also takes care to cover the syllabus for the Data Analysis certificate that is part of the scheme for the BCS Advanced International Diploma in Business Analysis.

The second part of the book covers a range of more advanced topics from naming conventions and yet more entity-relationship model notations, to considerations of quality in information models, corporate data models, modelling for business intelligence applications, and finally goes on to look at data and database topics including an overview of SQL, and moving to database design and optimisation.

Overall, the book provides an excellent grounding in the full range of topics related to information modelling.'

Matthew West

'As the roles of Data and Business Analysts become more intertwined, this book is timely in its publication. Businesses often fail to recognise information is a key resource and are confused by how it is presented or overwhelmed its complexity during use. Keith brings to the forefront of the readers mind the importance of communicating and analysing the relationship between Business, Information, Systems and Data, and the value in developing models cooperatively, gaining "consensus, not perfection“ from stakeholders. Simple everyday examples and analogies to support the readers understanding and make the subject more relatable are used.

I enjoyed reading the book and completing the exercises. An excellent learning aid for Analysts who are new to modelling or need reminding of good practice.'

Business Analyst and Mentor - Katie Walsh

‘Anyone interested in a thoughtful, well-done text on how to do high-quality business analytical data modelling should definitely proceed with this book.’

David Hay

'Keith Gordon’s wonderfully compact yet thorough introduction to business-friendly information modelling is a terrific contribution to the field. Globally, there’s a surge of interest in data modelling as a powerful tool for improving communication, especially with professionals who used to think business-oriented entity-relationship modelling didn't need to be in their tool kits. Business analysts, Agile developers, data scientists, big data specialists, and other professionals will all benefit from Keith’s work.'

Senior Consultant, Clariteq - Alec Sharp

'“Modelling Business Information” provides an introduction to data modeling, to the nomenclature used by common modeling techniques, and to techniques for representing common patterns. This is a useful book for business analysts who are creating the information model as well as for business and IT users who need to understand a data model.'

Keith W. Hare