Anonymous
Posted Sat Apr 16 00:00:00 EDT 2005
While the book calls itself 'Beginning', it actually takes you a long way into understanding and making a relational model. The authors heavily downplay the formal maths aspect. No predicate calculus and no proving of theorems. Of necessity, the Normal Forms are explained, including the contributions of Boyce and Codd to this development. Simple relational tables are used for illustration. This topic lends itself easily to diagrams of interrelated data sets held in tables. Which is probably more visually understandable anyway. Perhaps the most important chapter is on making a conceptual model of your system or problem. In a top down approach, you start here. And it can be rather intangible until you build up expertise. Subsequent chapters show how to parlay the conceptual model into a logical model and then into a physical model. Important steps, to be sure, but secondary. Focus on the essentials.
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Overview
Data storage design, and awareness of how data needs to be utilized within an organization, is of prime importance in ensuring that company data systems work efficiently. If you need to know how to capture the information needs of a business system in a relational database model, but don’t know where to start, then this is the book for you.
Beginning Relational Data Modeling, Second Edition will lead you step-by-step through the process of developing an effective logical data model for your relational database. No previous data modeling experience is even required. The authors infuse the book with concise, straightforward wisdom to explain a usually complex, jargon-filled discipline. And examples are based on their extensive experience modeling for real business systems.
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Meet the Author
Evan Terry has been in the IT industry for more than 15 years as a programmer/analyst, systems engineer, custom software consultant, senior developer, data analyst, and data architect, serving government and the private sector. He firmly believes that in order to succeed at developing complex systems, the IT professional must truly understand the business processes he supports. Evan tries to bridge the gap between the technical and the non-technical by understanding the perspectives of both and helping the two groups communicate effectively.