JCK - A Veteran-Owned Small Business		 EXCELLENCE IN DATA ARCHITECTURE

since 1989

America Support You		 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? 		What can be done about this problem? How can we narrow or close the reality gap? Here are a few suggested steps:

  • First, we need to recognize that the data structure beneath the system will reflect some reality, even before a line of code is written. The reality reflected in the data structure will strongly determine what can and cannot be done by the system, and how much coding it will take.

  • Second, we should acknowledge that system should be based as firmly as possible on user’s definitions, not some DBA’s interpretation of a programmer’s instructions derived from an analyst’s interpretations of user’s definitions. In other words, the closer to the source (i.e. the user), the better.

  • Third, we should make the explicit translation of user’s reality to into a data structure the first step in system development. That structure and the associated operational definitions should be the defining blueprint of the development effort. Be prepared for some effort! Sometimes the users don’t know their reality as tidily as they think they do, or different users may have different definitions that will need to be reconciled!

Fortunately, the tools for doing this have been available for years. User-focused data architecture techniques such as ERA™ and BEAM™ techniques teach both users and designers how to communicate quickly and clearly, and how to capture the user’s reality in a clear, easy-to-understand table structures. These techniques work right in the user’s presence, because only when the user can understand and verify the result can it truly be said that the structure reflects the user’s reality.

This calls for hard work from both the users and the designers, but the payoff is that the system foundation accurately reflects the user’s reality, which means the rest of the system comes together well. This may not completely eliminate that system failure rate, but be assured of this: as long as there’s a gap between the user’s reality and the reality reflected by the data structure, not much else will work properly. Neither clever coding nor good interface design nor switching development platforms will close that gap. Until the data structure reflects the user reality, that development failure rate will probably hover at the 65% rate.
 

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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).