E183 PowerDesigner: Supporting the Enterprise

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E183PowerDesigner Supporting the Enterprise

• Michael F. Nicewarner
• Data Administrator
• IBP, a part of the Tyson family
• mike.nicewarner_at_ibpinc.com

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Introduction

• Who am I?
• 16 years in IT USAF, insurance and manufacturing
• 8 years of experience with PowerDesigner
• 5 years with DataModel.Org
• Who are you?
• DA, DBA, Analyst, Programmer or Other?
• Guru, Expert, Average, Novice or Beginner?

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Goals

• I want to . . .
• Establish ground rules
• This is a discussion
• We are here to learn and improve
• Show you the latest toys in PowerDesigner
• Version 9.5 is cool
• There are all kinds of new tricks
• Give you some useful tools and resources

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Agenda

• Organizing for the Enterprise
• Getting started
• Integrating with the organization
• Different models, different purposes
• The communication foundation
• Modeling techniques
• Summary Discussion

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PowerDesigner in the Enterprise

• PowerDesigner is very flexible, but some
  decisions need to be made up-front
• Before you purchase
• Please consider using the Repository
• Look at the various modules and pricing options
• Decide who will be using it and how
• Document your current IT processes
• Get commitments from other groups in IT to insert
  data modeling into their processes

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PowerDesigner in the Enterprise

• More up-front decisions to be made
• Individual model (file) sizes
• Opening/closing, checking in/out of Repository
• Subject areas, model scopes, physical databases
• Consider using the Master Model concept
• Dictionary of common objects
• Central point of control for these objects
• Use Free Model to diagram inter-model dependencies

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PowerDesigner in the Enterprise

• What if I already have stuff?
• Start where you can.
• Document what you have.
• Track everything!
• Nothing is ideal.
• Something is better than nothing.
• Lobby to change procedures (get model in front of
  database)

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PowerDesigner in the Enterprise

• Be aware of other modeling styles
• Other modeling tools notation
• Object Role Modeling
• Oracle Designer/2000
• ERwin (or AllFusion)
• ER/Studio
• In enterprise setting, you may encounter (or have
  to integrate with) any of the above or more

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Different Models, Different Purposes

• Spend time in each PowerDesigner Module
• Business Process Model
• New Swimlane diagram
• Conceptual Data Model
• Classic Entity Relationship Diagram
• Logical Data Model
• New for PowerDesigner, but old idea
• Physical Data Model
• Object Oriented Model
• New Sequence and Component diagrams

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The Importance of Communication

• These arent just pretty pictures
• The whole idea is to communicate
• BPM and CDM communicate to the business
• LDM and PDM communicate to the DBA
• BPM, PDM and OOM communicate to the developer
• Document, document, and document some more
• Built-in to the tool (comments, descriptions,
  etc)
• Embedded or attached to the model (Word, etc)
• Maintain a historical perspective

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The Importance of Communication

• Reports, Paper and HTML
• Not everyone will have PowerDesigner installed
• Reports are great for consultants
• Develop a library of common layouts
• Store on network drive
• Dont go overboard with paper
• Make an Intranet resource
• Publish diagrams via HTML
• Provide web access to Repository

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Modeling Techniques

• Ways to improve communication
• No dead crows rule for the CDM
• Use multiple diagrams for clarity
• Hide the details if they will confuse
• Change symbols and add graphics to clarify
• Use the new Free Model for other drawings

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Modeling Techniques

• Ways to improve your models
• Put everything in a workspace to simplify your
  work
• Use the Repository for all major maintenance
• Need to organize models in the Repository
• DAMA is a great resource (www.dama.org)
• Local chapters networking opportunities
• On-line white papers and other documentation
• Magazines (DM Review) and other periodicals
• Formal training and certification programs

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Modeling Techniques

• Model Generation
• Plan for the initial CDM -gt PDM generation
• Use the Logical DBMS to get the LDM
• Define keys, indexes and other common items
• Rearrange columns as needed
• Analyze associative tables
• May need to go back to CDM
• Use the LDM to generate DBMS-specific models
• Changes start in the highest model of the chain

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Modeling Techniques

• Dealing with DBAs
• Do the DBAs each have a copy of PowerDesigner?
• Yes? Then let them extract your final copy from
  the Repository to generate DDL.
• Make sure they check back in their final copy
• No? Then you need to generate the DDL
• DBAs may not like the DDL (customize the XDB)
• Work to ensure they have all needed scripts
• Version the scripts
• In any case, you need authority to control DDL
  process

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Modeling Techniques

• Other Topics
• Can edit database and other definition files
• Customize DDL, reverse engineering behavior
• Report language (terms and abbreviations)
• Visual Basic scripts
• Can automate many functions
• Extended import/export
• Repository
• Repository PDM in PowerDesigner
• Extend Repository, but leave base tables alone

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Discussion

• Surrogate verses Natural Keys
• Surrogate keys
• Separate database constraints from business rules
• Makes joins more efficient
• More confusing for direct user queries
• Natural keys
• Obvious, natural and understandable
• Not always unique
• Bulky table structures and strange join syntax
• I encourage the use of Surrogate Keys

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Discussion

• Data Modeling verses Database Design
• Conceptual model is more important
• Fewer objects
• Business lingo
• Physical model is more important
• What everyone wants to see
• Accurate to what is out there
• I encourage a balanced use of both

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Conclusion

• Thank you for your time
• V9.5 (used for demos) is available
• Large installations do take more planning
• There are resources to help you
• On-line help
• Sybase tech support
• Newsgroups (forums.sybase.com)
• Organizations