Cbdm Certified Business Data Modeler

Lecture 00: Introduction to the CBDM Course Preview 05:04

Lecture 0 is a narrated PowerPoint presentation that provides an introductory overview of the CBDM Course. It has no resources for download.

Lecture 1: Data Modeling Conventions - Part 1 Preview 02:01

Lecture 1 introduces the main conventions of data modeling. The purpose of data modeling is first defined. The concepts of data entities, data attributes and data associations are defined with examples.

A data entity (or just “entity”) is represented as a rectangular box in a logical data map diagram, where the name of the entity is shown in capitals and represents a physical database table when it is later implemented. The name of the entity is also expressed in the singular to represent one occurrence of the entity.

A data attribute (or just “attribute”) provides some detail about an entity and is shown in lower-case. It may appear inside the entity box in which it resides, or may be included in an Entity List, where each entity name is shown in capitals: its attributes are shown in lower-case with surrounding brackets.

A data association (or just “association”) is shown in a data map as a line joining two related entities. Symbols are placed at each end of the association line where it touches each entity. The symbols represent business rules that govern the management of the association between the related entities.

Slightly different symbols for association “degree” or “cardinality” and for association “nature” are used by the business-driven data mapping notation and the IT-driven data mapping notation.

The business-driven data mapping notation uses a “crows-foot” symbol to represent the association “degree” of one or many, while the absence of a “crows-foot” represents the association “degree” of one.

The business-driven data mapping notation for association nature uses a short bar across the association line to represent mandatory or “must”, with a zero on the line to represent optional or “may” and a zero and a bar on the line to represent optional becoming mandatory or “will”. This is used to represent more complex business rules that are often time-dependent.

This Lecture includes Exercise Problem 1. Guidance is provided to assist in solving Exercise 1, Reference in the video is1made to the Sample Solution on the CD that is provided with the First Edition hard-cover version of the Reference text. This Sample Solution can be downloaded in PDF from the Bonus Lectures 12 – 14 of this Section.

Additionally, click on the Resources Available button, then on the Filename: “Chap-06-Problems.pdf” to download the Problems document. Save, Open and Print this document, which is from Chapter 6 of the Reference Textbook and documents all of the Problems in this section.

Also, click on the Resources Available button, then on the Filename: “Download and Install Free Modeling Tool for CBDM.pdf” to download the Instructions document to download and install Visible Advantage.

Lecture 2: Data Modeling Conventions - Part 2 Preview 18:03

Lecture 2 continues with the conventions for associations.

The IT-driven data mapping notation uses a “crows-foot” symbol to represent the association “degree” of one or many, while a short bar across the association line represents the association “degree” of one. This differs from the business-driven approach, which uses the absence of a crows foot to represent one.

The IT-driven data mapping notation for association nature uses a second short bar across the association line to represent mandatory or “must”, with a zero on the line to represent optional or “may”. However, the IT-driven notation does not have a symbol to represent optional becoming mandatory or “will”. More complex business rules that are often time-dependent are instead expressed as a text purpose statement that is attached to the association line.

This Lecture concludes with Exercise Problem 2. Guidance is provided to assist in solving Exercise 2, Reference in the video is made to the Sample Solution on the CD that is provided with the First Edition Hardcover version of the Reference text. This Sample Solution can be downloaded in PDF from the Bonus Lectures 12-14 of this Section.

Lecture 3: Data Entity Types - Part 1 Preview 11:39

Lecture 3 introduces the various data entity types, with many examples. It covers: Type entities; Principal (or “super-type”) entities; Secondary (or “sub-type”) entities; Exclusive Type entities; Inclusive Type entities; and Intersecting entities.

Intersecting entities result from the decomposition of many to many associations. Intersecting entities typically indicate the presence of business activities, business processes or business systems.

Lecture 4: Data Entity Types - Part 2 Preview 15:31

Lecture 4 discusses Intersecting entities further, and then introduces a special form of Intersecting entities: Role entities, where a many to many association exists between a Type entity and its related Principal entity. Several examples are provided.

This Lecture concludes with Exercise Problem 2, which requires you to draw a simple data map for an Airline Sales organization. The steps you should follow are discussed as Tasks.

Reference in the video is made to the Sample Solution on the CD that is provided with the First Edition Hardcover version of the Reference text. The Sample Solutions can be downloaded in PDF from the Bonus Lectures 12-14 of this Section.

Lecture 5: Structure Entities - Part 1 Preview 19:40

Lecture 5 introduces the final data entity type: Structure entities. The typical format of a Structure entity is discussed. With the entity types we have discussed in the earlier lectures of this section, all occurrences of an entity are related (by associations) to all occurrences of one or more other entities.

Sometimes an entity can be related to itself: this is called a recursive association.  (It is also called a “convoluted” association.) Structure entities are used to represent recursive associations, where one occurrence of an entity can be related to one of more other occurrences of the same entity.

Structure entities can be used to capture expert rules that govern which occurrences are related to other occurrences of the same entity. These expert rules constitute expert business knowledge. Structure entities can be used for very efficient processing of this expert knowledge. Several examples are given of Structure entities. Structure entities are covered in further detail in Section 2 on Business Normalization. 

Lecture 6: Structure Entities - Part 2 Preview 09:34

Lecture 6 demonstrates how data map associations can be used to express various business rules that illustrate alternative business strategies. A number of data map fragments are used to illustrate these alternative strategies.

This Lecture concludes with Exercise Problem 3. This requires you to draw a data map for a furniture store with a range of products. Guidance is provided to assist in solving Exercise 3,

Reference in the video is made to the Sample Solution on the CD that is provided with the First Edition Hardcover version of the Reference text. This Sample Solution can be downloaded in PDF from the Bonus Lectures 12-14 of this Section.

Lecture 7: Data Attribute Types - Part 1 Preview 09:30

Lecture 7 first discusses the need for clear Purpose Descriptions to be defined for every data entity, data attribute and data association. These Purpose Descriptions clarify their real meaning and intent: in agreeing on these definitions, additional entities and attributes may be indicated.

If there is business expert agreement that these newly identified data entities, attributes or associations are important to the business now and in the future, they should be added. Entities are added to the data map and entity list. If additional associations are needed to other related entities, those associations are also added to the data map. Newly identified attributes are added to the entity list. Purpose Descriptions are defined for each of the additions.

Lecture 7 next introduces the concepts of Model-View Authority and Attribute Authority: for security and privacy control. It illustrates this control with many examples. Static Attributes, such as in Look-up tables are covered.

Lecture 8: Data Attribute Types - Part 2 Preview 10:20

Lecture 8 introduces Entity – Control links, also used for privacy and security control. Key Attributes are next discussed, with many examples for: primary keys; foreign keys; candidate keys; and compound keys.

Non-Key Attributes are covered next, with examples for: Selection attributes (also called Secondary keys); Group attributes; Elemental attributes; Repeating Group attributes; and Derived attributes.

Lecture 9: Data Attribute Types - Part 3 Preview 18:40

Lecture 9 continues with Non-Key Attributes, with many examples, for: Selection attributes (also called Secondary keys); Group attributes; Elemental attributes; Repeating Group attributes; and Derived attributes.

Optional attributes are introduced, which will be covered further in Section 2 – when we learn about Business Normalization. Logical data domains for attributes are discussed, which are translated to physical data types by Modeling Tools when generating the physical database DDL from logical data models. 

Lecture 10: Data Attribute Types - Part 4 Preview 10:04

Lecture 10 summarizes the data attribute types that were covered in Lectures 7-10.

Next Exercise Problem 4 is discussed. This requires you to document in Entity List format, an Employee Register page as a source document, for later use in developing a data model from that Employee Register document.

Reference in the video is made to the Sample Solution on the CD that is provided with the First Edition Hardcover version of the Reference text. The Sample Solutions can be downloaded in PDF from the Bonus Lectures 12-14 of this Section.

Lecture 11: Data Mapping Exercises 5 - 6 Preview 08:10

Lecture 11 requires you to develop data maps for two exercise problems.

Exercise Problem 5 requires a data map for a Garments Manufacturer. You are given the problem statement and a number of tasks, to help you develop the data map.

Exercise Problem 6 requires you to develop a data map for a more complex problem: that of an Vehicle Insurance Company. You are given a process-oriented, operational problem statement over several slides describing the various documents that must accompany a Vehicle Accident Insurance Claim. A number of tasks and hints are provided to help you develop the data map.

Reference in the video is made to the Sample Solution on the CD that is provided with the First Edition Hardcover version of the Reference text. This Sample Solution can be downloaded in PDF from the Bonus Lectures 12-14 of this Section.

Bonus Lecture 12: Sample Solutions Exercises 1 - 4 Preview 06:37

Lecture 12 discusses the sample solutions for each of the data mapping exercise problems 1 – 4 that you completed in this Section 1.

Click on the Resources button, then on the Filename: “Chap-06-Solutions.pdf” to download the Sample Solutions document. Save, Open and Print this document, which is from Chapter 6 of the Reference Textbook and documents all of the Sample Solutions for the Problems in this Section 1. Use this for reference in addition to the discussion of each Sample Solution in these Bonus Lectures 12-14.

Have your solutions to Exercises 1 – 4 with you when you view and listen to the discussion of each sample solution. There will be differences between our respective solutions, as we were both unable to get input from the relevant business experts for each problem. 

Bonus Lecture 13: Sample Solution Exercise 5 Preview 07:44

Lecture 13 discusses the sample solution for Exercise Problem 5 that you completed in this Section.

Have your solution to Exercise 5 with you when you view and listen to the discussion of each sample solution. There will be differences between our respective solutions, as we were both unable to get input from the relevant business experts for each problem.

Bonus Lecture 14: Sample Solution Exercise 6 Preview 17:39

Lecture 14 discusses the sample solution for Exercise Problems 6 that you completed in this Section.

Have your solution to Exercise 6 with you when you view and listen to the discussion of each sample solution. There will be differences between our respective solutions, as we were both unable to get input from the relevant business experts for each problem.