Data Modeling Master Class Training Manual 2nd Edition: Steve Hoberman's Best Practices Approach to Understanding and Applying Fundamentals Through Advanced Modeling Techniques Review

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(More customer reviews)This Master Class captures in one place much of the innovative stuff that Steve Hoberman has brought to the field of data modeling. It provides a great foundation to become a truly skilled data modeler. You can also follow Steve's continuing advances in the field as well as his design challenges at [...].

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This is the second edition of the training manual for the Data Modeling Master Class that Steve Hoberman teaches onsite and through public classes. This text can be purchased prior to attending the Master Class, the latest course schedule and detailed description can be found on Steve Hoberman's website, stevehoberman.com.
The Master Class is a complete course on requirements gathering and data modeling, containing four days of practical techniques for producing solid relational and dimensional data models. After learning the styles and steps in gathering and modeling requirements, you will apply a best practices approach to building and validating data models through the Data Model ScorecardÂ. You will learn not just how to build a data model, but also how to build a data model well. Challenging exercises and workshops will reinforce the material and enable you to apply these techniques in your current projects.
By the end of the course, you will know how to…
Read a data model of any size and complexity
Validate any data model with the Data Model ScorecardÂ
Build relational and dimensional subject area, logical, and physical data models
Use abstraction
Gather requirements
Leverage a series of templates for capturing requirements
Write clear, complete, and correct definitions
Explain the critical factors that must be in place for a successful enterprise data model
Topics
Part 1: Modeling Basics. We will explain data modeling concepts and terminology. We will also explore each component on a data model and practice reading business rules.
Part 2: Overview to the Data Model ScorecardÂ. The Scorecard is a set of ten categories for validating a data model. We will explore best practices from the perspectives of both the modeler and reviewer, and you will be provided with a template to use on your current projects.
Part 3: Understanding subject area, logical, and physical data models. The subject area model captures a business need within a well-defined scope; the logical data model captures an application-independent business solution; and the physical data model captures the technical solution by focusing on factors such as performance and security. Each of these models will be explained in detail in this section.
Part 4: Ensuring the model captures the requirements. We will focus on techniques such as the use of spreadsheets and business assertions to ensure the data model meets the business requirements.
Part 5: Validating model scope. We will focus on techniques for validating that the scope of the requirements matches the scope of the model. If the scope of the model is greater than the requirements, we have a situation known as scope creep. If the model scope is less than the requirements, we will be leaving information out of the resulting application.
Part 6: Following acceptable modeling principles. We will focus on techniques for building sound designs.
Part 7: Determining the optimal use of generic concepts. We will focus on techniques for capturing the ideal use of generic concepts such as
Party and Event.
Part 8: Applying consistent naming standards. We will focus on techniques for applying correct and consistent naming standards.
Part 9: Arranging the model for maximum understanding. We will focus on techniques for arranging the entities, data elements, and relationships to maximize readability.
Part 10: Writing clear, correct, and consistent definitions. We will focus on techniques for writing useable definitions.
Part 11: Matching the model with the enterprise. We will focus on techniques for ensuring the model complements the big picture.
Part 12: Comparing the metadata with the data. We will focus on techniques for confirming the data elements and their rules match reality.

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A Pragmatic Guide to Business Process Modelling (2nd Ed) Review

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(More customer reviews)If you want to know what business really looks like and the requirements of business, then this book will be a very good choice for you. This book contains five chapters that analyses business tools and techniques. Among these five chapters, one of them named "teaching guide" helps me a lot with my paper in university. It tells much useful information about different types of teaching and how to develop professional training. I found this book in my university's library, but I recommend you to buy a paper book because I believe that will be more helpful.


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Revised and expanded with 5 new chapters, the second edition of 'A Pragmatic Guide to Business Process Modelling' shows how effective and accurate modelling can deliver a more complete understanding of your business and its future requirements. Most organisations traditionally rely upon over-simplified activity diagrams that only map input and output, but by applying the visual modelling techniques described here, it is possible to measure and map your entire business, using the Unified Modelling Language (UML). Drawing upon his considerable experience in consulting, author Jon Holt covers all aspects of the BPM process, including analysis, specification, mapping, measurement and documentation. New chapters deal with the presentation of process information, enterprise architecture, business tools and a teaching guide.

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How Work Gets Done: Business Process Management, Basics and Beyond Review

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(More customer reviews)First off, I have to admit I am not objective about this review. Artie Mahal is a good friend and we have worked together developing the methodology he describes in this book. That said, I'll be as objective as I can.
Artie began his process journey at Mars North America, when his boss asked him to take charge of a business process change project. He went on to become the head of BPM at Mars North America, to train process change agents throughout the corporation, and to help the company become a mature process-focused organization. When Artie retired from Mars North America he formed his own consulting company and also joined with BPTrends Associates. While at BPTrends Associates he has worked with Roger Burlton, me and others to develop the BPTrends Associates Methodology. We refer to the methodology as a "best practices" methodology because we did not set out to create a new methodology, but simply to structure the existing business practices that have developed over the past thirty years into a consistent, systematic framework that companies can use to solve process problems.
Artie's contribution to the development of the methodology has been significant, but much more significant, to my mind, has been his contribution to our training and consulting practice. Artie's extensive experience at Mars guarantees his ability to help organizations when they begin to develop their own process resources. He's been there and done it, and can tell you about the problems they had and how they overcome them. And, in the past few years, he's consulted with lots of other companies and learned about their problems and guided them through the beginnings of their own process journeys.
To my mind, however, Artie's greatest strength is as an instructor. Artie Mahal is one of the most knowledgeable and gifted instructors I have known. He brings an unbeatable combination of enthusiasm, empathy, knowledge, and energy to his classes. His students learn; but more important, they catch a spark and become enthusiastic about what they can do with the ideas Artie provides.
BPTrends Associates is currently working on a Methodology Handbook that will systematically document all of the steps and techniques we teach in the BPTrends Associates Methodology. Naturally, when I got Artie's book I looked to see whether he would be preempting our Handbook. Artie certainly does describe the BPTrends Associates approach, but he does so in his own friendly and enthusiastic way. This is not a methodological handbook - this is a book that is very like a conversation with Artie. He's sits you down, talks to you about the kinds of problems you will likely encounter and then suggests what kinds of approaches you should consider.
A quick glance at the contents will give you a feeling for the scope of the book:
1.Enterprise Business Model
2.Business Process Hierarchy
3.Business Process Blueprint
4.Anatomy of a Process
5.Process Knowledge
6.Business Models
7.Process Configuration
8.BPM Methodology
9.BPM Competencies
10.BPM Services
11.Software Tools
12.NewAge Foods Business Process Case Study
Everything is here - goals and strategies, alignment, scope diagrams, cause-effect diagrams, flow diagrams, process measures, redesign strategies and ideas about how to roll out a process. The focus is clearly on redesigning a broken process and the example walks readers through the steps of doing just that. But it does much more because it provides Artie's stories and his suggestions along the way.
When I first started writing books, I used to worry about who my audience was. (Publishers always ask you that.) After awhile I realized that my audience was myself: I write books to organize and explain things to myself. At the beginning of the book, Artie talks about being asked by his manager to take over a major process redesign project and looking for a guru to help him - and meeting Roger Burlton. Well, that was many years ago, and Artie has become a guru in his own right. I believe he has written this book to be the book he would have bought to help him when he was first given that assignment at the beginning of his career.
If you have ever wished you had a very practical friend who could sit down and talk you through just what's involved in improving how work gets done at your organization, this is the book!
I expect this is the book I will be recommending to those who are new to process work for the foreseeable future.


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Rediscover how your organization works and where it can be improved by using simple, yet powerful techniques!
How Work Gets Done will provide the business or IT professional with a practical working knowledge of Business Process Management (BPM). This book is written in a conversational style that encourages you to read it from start to finish and master these objectives:
Learn how to identify the goals and drivers important to your organization and how to align these with key performance measures
Understand how business strategies, business policies, and operational procedures need to be connected within a Business Process Architecture
Know the basic building blocks of any business process - Inputs, Outputs, Guides, and Enablers
Learn how to create a BPM Center of Excellence in your organization
Acquire the skills to establish a BPM methodology addressing Enterprise-level, Process-Level, and Implementation-Level priorities
Learn how to build a Process Competency Framework encompassing all BPM stakeholders
Obtain the knowledge to improve a process step-by-step with easy to use techniques and templates such as swimlanes and flowcharts

How Work Gets Done is a clear, concise, and well-navigated journey into the world of Business Processes and Business Process Management. From a practical introduction through advanced topics around methodology and competencies, it is suitable for business process newcomers and seasoned practitioners alike. It should be required reading at all levels of every organization. Eugene Fucetola - Global Application Messaging and Integration, Operations Manager, Mars Information Services

If you have always wished you had a very practical friend who could sit down and talk you through just what is involved improving how work gets done at your organization, this is the book!Paul Harmon - Executive Editor, Business Process Trends and Chief Methodologist, BPTrends Associates

Artie Mahal has done something that was thought to be impossible - produce an easily readable book about business process management. He paints pictures with words, offers many easy-to-grasp analogies, and stimulates with simplifying charts of complex concepts. Leon Fraser- Lecturer, Rutgers Business School

Chapter Listing:

Chapter 1 - Enterprise Business Model
Chapter 2 - Business Process Hierarchy
Chapter 3 - Business Process Blueprint
Chapter 4 - Anatomy of a Process
Chapter 5 - Process Knowledge
Chapter 6 - Business Models
Chapter 7 - Process Configuration
Chapter 8 - BPM Methodology
Chapter 9 - BPM Competencies
Chapter 10 - BPM Services
Chapter 11 - Software Tools
Chapter 12 - NewAge Foods Business Process Case Study

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Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World with CD-ROM Review

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(More customer reviews)The field of system dynamics was created in 1956 under the leadership of MIT Professor Jay W. Forrester to evaluate how alternative policies affect growth, stability, fluctuation, and changing behavior in corporations, cities, and countries. Forrester founded the System Dynamics Program in the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management at MIT. John Sterman is currently Director of the System Dynamics Group at MIT.
This text is a summary of the wisdom and knowledge gathered over more than twenty years of research dedicated to the study of practical methods for systems thinking and the dynamic modeling of complex systems. It is well written, easy to understand, and worthy of serious consideration.
I believe the text is destined to become a classic. It is written in a straightforward style and does not require prerequisite knowledge of higher mathematics. Indeed, in the author's words, "one of the strengths of the text is the way it presents system dynamics with a minimum of mathematical formalism. The goal is to develop the reader's intuition and conceptual understanding, without sacrificing the rigor of the scientific method." This goal is achieved well.
The text opens with a succinct and well organized description of approaches to the study of complex systems. It develops a set of principles for successful use of systems dynamics and provides well-written overviews of the Modeling Process and dynamic systems.
It covers the construction of causal loop diagrams and describes their application in a variety of business and engineering examples.
This is one of the best texts in its field for upper division undergraduate courses and graduate programs. It will be useful to many in business, engineering, and science.

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The leading authority on system dynamics explains this approach to organizational problem solving, emphasizing simulation models to understand issues such as fluctuating sales, market growth and stagnation, the reliability of forecasts and the rationality of business decision-making. The CD includes modeling software from Vensim, ithink, and PowerSim.

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