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Moving the Goalposts for Data Models … Deliberately

by Ronald G. Ross on January 12, 2012

A practitioner recently said this: “Even if we assume that a technical methodology might exist to generate a complete and correct data model from a set of articulated business rules / facts, in my opinion this approach just moves the target from the data modeling area to the need to verify the articulation of business [...]

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Data Modeling: Art or Science?

by Ronald G. Ross on January 11, 2012

A practitioner recently commented: “Everyone has their biased view of what a data model is. Data modeling is art – not science. Give 6 data modelers one set of requirements and you’ll get 7 solutions all distinctively different.”
My response: To me that’s a huge problem. No, ‘data’ modeling is not a science, but nor should [...]

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More on Concept Model vs. Conceptual Data Model

by Ronald G. Ross on January 10, 2012

As part of a continuing dialog, I recently asked these questions: What does the term “conceptual data model” really mean? Is it the best term for what is meant?
To me, it sounds like “conceptual data model” might be about “conceptual data”. Surely not(?). What exactly then? (Some of my thoughts on the matter: http://goo.gl/8GX5o.)
A practitioner [...]

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Why Data Models Can’t Be Verified … and Why Data Modelers Remain Under-Empowered – Data Model Week

by Ronald G. Ross on January 9, 2012

In the real world, we communicate with sentences … just like we are doing now. If a “data model” can’t support writing meaningful and consistent sentences, then surely something is amiss. Business rules are always sentences, so you can see where I’m going with this.
So I come to this radical and provocative suspicion: The reason [...]

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What Exactly is a ‘Conceptual Data Model’ … and Why in the World is It Called that, Not Just ‘Concept Model’?

by Ronald G. Ross on January 4, 2012

I’m kicking off 2012 with a couple of things I just don’t get. Here’s the second one: What exactly is a ‘conceptual data model’? Why in the world is it called that instead of just ‘concept model’?
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Did you ever pause for a while to ponder the meaning of the term “data”? Most of us don’t. [...]

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Something Important All Business Analysts Owe to Business People … Probably Not Something You’d Expect?

by Ronald G. Ross on October 6, 2011

One of the first rules of business analysis should be never waste business people’s time. One of the fastest ways to waste their time is not knowing what they are talking about … literally … and do nothing about it. So you end up just wasting their time over and over again. Unacceptable.
Is there a [...]

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Where are Your Business Rules … In a Big-P Process Dead Zone?

by Ronald G. Ross on September 6, 2011

On an EA LinkedIn group last week, Nick Malik wrote the following about business rules in Zachman Framework 3.0:
“I’ll bite. If the ‘enterprise ontology’ is similar to the periodic table of elements, then business rules are molecules. They are compositions of elements with specific implications, embedded in event handling logic. Why would you expect to [...]

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Confession Time … I Fell into the Same Vocabulary Trap I Warn Everyone Else About

by Ronald G. Ross on August 30, 2011

I have been involved in a great on-going discussion on LinkedIn about data models. I posed the question: Is there any proven way to demonstrate data models are correct, complete, and stable with respect to the operational business and its needs? You might enjoy joining in: http://goo.gl/MsnXu
It was literally 25 messages into the discussion that [...]

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