JCK - Excellence in Data Architecture

EXCELLENCE IN DATA ARCHITECTURE

since 1989

4348 Pine Grove Ave
Fort Gratiot MI USA
48059-3732
V: 810 982-8639

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The Weakest Link in Business

Data Structure and User Reality

Business Events and Mathematical Modeling

What is User Focused Data Architecture?

It seems space-wasteful to create a new table for every relation, and hardly necessary with that unduplicated Primary Key list sitting there waiting to have relationships overlaid upon it. Still, it's important to note that modeling all relationships in new tables had advantages. Notice how tidily the new Employee/Vehicle table dealt with the problem of the Draw Date. As long as the Employee/Vehicle relation is "overlaid" upon the Employee entity, any attributes of that relation have to hang off the Employee table, appearing as if they were depending on the EmpNum. It would take some explaining to establish that no, they were dependent on the Employee/Vehicle relationship, which was hidden "right there" on the Employee entity.

The more attributes a relation has, the more important this ability to clearly place attributes of relations becomes. Let's say when an employee drew a vehicle, they wanted to track not only the date but the purpose – or perhaps when an employee works within a department, that employee has a status (which would probably be a minor entity, related to the Employee/Department table.) The point being, these distinct tables for relationships could have some real advantages, even if it's not how things are normally done.

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Since 1989, JCK has been devoted to teaching and implementing the principles of User-Focused Data Architecture. UFDA is based on the principle that the users are the data experts in any organization. Sound data architecture should focus on extracting the user's knowledge, clarifying ambiguous defintions, and building understandable data structures. These definitions and structures serve as the basis for system development. The first and most well known UFDA technique is Extended Relational Analysis ™ (ERA), which has been proven for decades. More recent techniques include Business Event Analysis & Modeling ™ (BEAM), which is useful for both Transactional Systems (BEAM TSS) and Decision Support Systems (BEAM DSS).