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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Business Event Analysis & Modeling (BEAM™)

BEAM™ for Decision Support Systems

Extended Relational Analysis (ERA™)

Structured Query Language (SQL)

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What is User Focused Data Architecture?

The Proven Alternative.

UFDA differs from process modeling in two ways. First, it focuses on the expertise of the user, not that of the analyst. Second, it captures the data first, because once the data is defined and structured, processes can be wrapped around it.

The first widely used UFDA technique was called Extended Relational Analysis™. Developed by Relational Systems Corporation, it was based on the theoretical work of Dr. Edgar Codd and his colleague C.J. Date. It was the first technique to marry the components of natural language to the mathematical constructs of sound relational theory.

What made ERA™ different was the focus on the user, and the use of a systematic technique to directly translate the user’s knowledge into easy-to-understand table formats. No free-form brainstorming or piles of scribbled notes: ERA went straight from the user’s knowledge to table structures. Since ERA was not tied to any particular database product, the resulting structures could be directly implemented in any relational database managment sytem. As a side benefit, the rigorous interviewing technique forced the user to provide clear definitions. The exercise of constructing the model forced them to be very precise when they used a term.

A more recent development in the UFDA world has been Business Event Analysis & Modeling™. This technique draws upon the theoretical basis of ERA, but makes it even faster and more user-friendly. By capturing and structuring the data of the operation’s business events, it provides all the rigor and structure of ERA, but with an additional bonus: it allows the participants to sequence the business events in order of occurrence, making it the only data structuring technique that immediately supports process modeling.

So, in answer to the question, “what would you suggest as an alternative to the widely used process modeling form of systems analysis”, we would answer, “user-focused data architecture.” Not only it is faster and more understandable, but it provides both rigorous data structures and clear data definitions. BEAM provides the additional advantage of helping document the flow of the data.
 

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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).