Tag: Database Design
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Abstracting and recombining all the way to the bank
In the past I’ve never understood what people really mean they say “think outside the box” but Jim Harris, in a recent OCDQ blog post, helped me figure it out. Mr. Harris ends with this provocative line: “the bottom line is Google and Facebook have socialized data in order to capitalize data as a true corporate asset.” The post…
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Get an early start for on-time data modeling
I’m a data modeler, so I enjoyed Jonathon Geiger’s recent article entitled “Why Does Data Modeling Take So Long”. But why does he say it like it’s a bad thing? Mr. Geiger’s bottom line is exactly right: “Most of the time spent developing data models is consumed developing or clarifying the requirements and business rules…
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Use conceptual data modeling in requirements definition
I’ve often thought that conceptual data modeling was an underused tool in the arsenal available to requirements analysts, and in a recent conversation I found that many were surprised that it would be used in the requirements phase at all. Checking the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) I found data modeling listed among the…
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SQL Saturday #30, Richmond Virginia, April 10, 2010
Thanks to all who attended my presentations at SQL Saturday on April 10. Here are the materials from my two presentations: – The Business End of Data Modeling (2.5m powerpoint presentation) – Normalize Metadata For Data Integration Analysis (5.5m full version, zip including presentation and code samples) – Normalize Metadata For Data Integration Analysis (small)…
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Cloud databases and business/IT alignment
Today, the foundation of most of our custom-built systems is a relational dbms. While development frameworks vary, they overwhelmingly access and maintain data in relational tables and columns. As I write I routinely save this post in a MySQL database, and at work I tend SQL Server applications. Millions of others develop, use, and extract…
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SQL Server Row Level Security @ Richmond Code Camp 2009.1
—– Update 10 January 2010: Thanks to Gints Plivna for observing that we had not posted the slides to this presentation, here they are: Pretty Good Row Level Security Slides. – Bob —– Thanks to those who attended Saturday’s Microsoft Code Camp (see http://richmondcodecamp.org/). Here are materials for the presentation “Pretty Good Row Level Security”…
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No business value in nulls
It seems I’m frequently in conversations about using null to represent a business value. To paraphrase, say there are credit and cash customers, and there’s a suggestion to set “Customer_Type” to “C” for credit and null for cash. To data and database professionals this is obviously a bad idea, but it’s not obvious from a…
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Grow your own row-level security
Data security is not optional in today’s business environment. High-visibility hacking and fraud, Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA regulations, and the Patriot Act all reinforce the need to present the right data to the right users and prevent the wrong ones from gaining access. Typically, “row level security” (RLS) is one requirement: to allow or permit access to…
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Someone’s integrating your data
Here’s a little-recognized fact about data integration: if you run a business or any sizable chunk of one, someone is integrating your data. In my professional life I have on occasion suggested data integration efforts. Sometimes my suggestions have been accepted and sometimes not. As an IT professional I understand that different managers have different…
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Beware the devils in the details of data integration
Much of today’s IT application development – custom or off-the-shelf – involves integrating data from legacy systems, third- party software products and external data sources such as demographics or mail lists. More often than not, data integration is unexpectedly complex, either due to data quality issues or the nature of the data integration itself.