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Business-oriented Data Modelling Masterclass

Balancing Engagement, Agility, and Complexity

 

[This course is fully booked.

Five virtual half day sessions from 13:30 until 17:00 hrs CET Amsterdam time zone. Three prior editions in this half day format received high evaluations!]

 

This three-day interactive workshop combines the core content from two popular data modelling offerings by Alec Sharp – Business Oriented Data Modelling and Advanced Data Modelling. Suitable for both new and experienced modellers, this course first explores unique techniques for rapidly developing high-quality models while maintaining the involvement of business professionals. It then provides hands-on practice with skills in more challenging topics – generalisation, recursion, subtyping, modelling time and history, presenting models to non-technical groups, the connection between E-R modelling and dimensional modelling, and many more. In all cases, the underlying philosophy is that a data model is a description of a business, not of a database.

Three main themes are explored in a very practical way:
1. The foundations of data modelling – what a data model really is, and maximising its relevance
2. The human side of data modelling – improving communication skills and engaging the business
3. The complex side of data modelling – getting better at modelling difficult situations

The workshop

After introducing entity-relationship modelling from a non-technical perspective, the basic components of a data model are thoroughly covered – entities, relationships, attributes, and rules. Practical tips, quality checklists, and warnings of common pitfalls are also shared. Through hands-on work, the workshop demonstrates why there is a global surge of interest in data modelling, especially conceptual data modelling or “concept modelling.” It also show how a concept model can be a great platform on which to develop application requirements (use cases and services) and to identify business processes.
A repeatable method for developing a data model is emphasised.

The first day of the workshop gets both new and experienced modellers to the same baseline on terminology, conventions, and the unique, business-friendly approaches this course provides. For the next two days, the course moves on to more advanced situations, such as the enforcement of complex business rules, handling recurring patterns, satisfying regulatory requirements to model time and history, capturing complex changes and corrections, dealing with existing databases or packaged applications, and integrating with dimensional modelling.

The Business-Oriented Data Modelling workshop by Alec Sharp is generally evaluated by the attendees with an overall rating of 9 or better.

Learning objectives

On workshop completion, participants will be able to:

  • Apply a variety of techniques that support the active participation and engagement of business professionals and subject matter experts
  • Use entity-relationship modelling to depict facts and rules about business entities at different levels of detail, including conceptual (overview) and logical (detailed) models
  • Learn an easy, language-oriented approach to initiating development of a data model
  • Recognise the four basic patterns in data modelling, and when to use them
  • Effectively use definitions and assertions (“rules”) as part of data modelling
  • Use an intuitive approach to data normalisation within an entity-relationship model
  • Apply various techniques for discovering and meeting additional requirements
  • Read a data model, and communicate with specialists using the appropriate terminology
  • Understand “the four Ds of data modelling” – definition, dependency, demonstration, and detail
  • Be able to implement lists, trees, and networks with recursive relationships
  • Know how and when to use supertypes/subtypes (generalisation/specialisation) vs. roles vs. both
  • Combine subtyping and recursion, as appropriate, to model difficult rules
  • Recognise the “category vs. types vs. instances” problem, and model reference data properly
  • Model “vectors” (attibutes that repeat a fixed number of times) properly – entity or attribute?
  • Use multi-way associations, associations of associations, and relationship constraints to handle complex rules
  • Handle circular relationships and cyclic dependencies properly with advanced normal forms
  • Model history, corrections, and time-dependent business rules with “temporal data models”
  • Understand the connection between analytic data structures (star schema or dimensional models) and ER models
  • Rapidly develop a first-cut dimensional model from a well-structured ER model
  • Prepare and deliver a data model review presentation.

Prerequisites

None, although an understanding of information systems concepts may be helpful.

Who is it for?

Roles that are currently benefitting from this workshop include:

  • Specialist data modellers, data architects, data analysts, and DBAs who wish to hone their skills.
  • Business analysts, business architects, enterprise architects, and application architects
  • Application / solution developers (especially on Agile teams)
  • Business professionals, Subject Matter Experts, and Project / Programme Managers involved in the analysis, design, and development (or selection and configuration) of a system.
  • BI (Business Intelligence) professionals, DW (Data Warehouse) professionals, big data specialists, data scientists, analytics specialists, and data lake implementers.

DAMA-I_logo_blackDiscount for DAMA members

Members of the DAMA NL Dutch chapter as well as Belux or International chapter are eligible for ten percent discount.

 

At the top of this page you can download the PDF brochure of this workshop.

 

Alec Sharp

Founder
Clariteq Systems Consulting
Alec Sharp, a senior consultant and acclaimed teacher with Clariteq Systems Consulting, has deep expertise in a rare combination of fields – business analysis and requirements specification, data modelling, strategy development, facilitation, and, of course, business process modelling, analysis and design.

Read more

The virtual seminars and workshops will be offered through an online meeting platform, usually Webex or Zoom, from our video studio. The virtual classroom is equipped with multiple professional cameras and microphones and we have a two person crew available so that we can offer a similar experience to that of the traditional classroom and, more important, still offer adequate interaction with the speaker.

The presenter / trainer will still use his Powerpoint, combined with flipchart and paper, virtual whiteboard and physical whiteboard and will be accompanied by a operator / moderator at the scene. The presenter does not have to worry about technical issues such as switching, splitting, microphone settings and such but can fully focus on the course material and on engaging with the online attendees.

  • When using the flipchart, the moderator will take care of switching scenes and camera perspective and of switching to attendees to ask questions.
  • When switching to flipchart you will have full view of the presenter and of the flipchart with all text and diagrams crystal clear.
  • And since the presenter / trainer is equipped with a wireless lapel microphone and the questions of the participants enter the course room clearly understandable (amplified), he can answer those questions from anywhere in the classroom and from any camera angle.
  • Asking questions and the speaker answering them can therefore be done just like you are used to in a regular classroom.
  • Because the course room is equipped with at least four monitors, the speaker/trainer also has a view of the online participants during the meeting.
  • For some (international) speakers we may use their own virtual course room with similar facilities but we will send the invite ourselves and the meeting will run on the Adept Events online meeting platform.

All of the above is to ensure that it does not become an impersonal one-way webinar but an interactive virtual classroom setting.

Those attending an online event or a hybrid event with the online meeting platform will be sent an invitiation with the meeting hyperlink and instructions a few days before, so well in advance of the course.

testimonials

Andries Kooijman Teacher, Hogeschool Inholland

“Excellent training and trainer which I would highly recommend when you have to have a more indepth knowledge about data modelling.”

Praveen Ravichandran Data Analyst, ING Bank

“Alec explained interesting and complex concepts of data modelling in a very interactive and indulging way that it is very hard to forget them :-).”

Robbert Kok Data Analyst, Volksbank

“Most interactive workshop I ever experienced.”

Ingrid Uitendaal Data Analyst, ING

“Will never forget this, especially the moves.”

Bram Laumans Data Engineer, Rabobank

“Very clear course from an experienced speaker with many useful examples.”

Marleen Verboven Data Steward, Dela

“Great course, enjoyed it a lot and learned even more!”

Maarten Op de Beeck Data Steward, Dela Belgium

“The course had a very high and immediate Return on Time Invested.”

Mascha Ackerstaff Data Modeling Lead, ASML

“Very practical approach to data modeling and very business oriented. It was a great pleasure listening to Alec.”

Pascal Ghijsen Head of portfolio analytics, APG Asset Management

“Using business language to model your business data is an absolute plus in this course. Alec is very energetic & knowledgeable.”

Pavel Dimitrov Lazarov Governance, Risk & Compliance Auditor, Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A (Generali Group)

“Course that I will recommend to my colleagues and boss. Nice method and great clarity from great teacher!”

Marc Ploemen Solution Architect, De Volksbank

“Good masterclass with valuable examples which I directly can use in my work.”

Ram Kumar Anantharaman Data Architect, FMO N.V.

“Business Data Modelling Course by Alec was informative and enjoyable. Alec provides a practical guidelines & best practices for representing business in terms of Conceptual Data Model and Logical Data Model.”

Nick Bresseleers DevOps Engineer, ING

“Excellent introduction to data modeling. Alec Sharp is a fantastic trainer who can explain the course material in a way that everyone can understand. The training course introduces the basics of data modeling and evolves towards some more advanced data modeling topics near the end.”

Charles van den Reekd BA, DLL

“Focus on the business purpose with real examples made by an excellent speaker with actual experience.”

Jeroen Meester Business Analyst, Belastingdienst

“Great workshop! Alec is an expert and knows how to teach in an easy and clear way.”

Dick de Boer Metadata specialist, APG

“Very active, well explained and presented course about Data Modelling!”

Remco Piels Product Owner, ING Bank

“The workshop gave an excellent view on data modelling and the speaker contains a lot of knowledge supported by real examples.”

Maurice Kusters Data Scientist, APG

“A great way of working is introduced that makes sure the business is never left out of data modelling. Alec Sharp is a great teacher.”

Ana Ferro Cantanhede Senior Dev. Engineer, ING Bank

“Very complete data modelling course, since the basic concepts to more advanced topics. A lot of the content have practical immediate application.”

In-house Info

Practically all of our seminars and workshops can be offered as an In-house course for your company exclusively. We can tailor with extra focus on specific topics that apply to your organization. Also available in online format or in face-to-face format with live video stream.

MORE INFO