Logical Data and Process Modeling

5 Days – Course No. BA30

 

Target audience:

◦     Business analysts

◦     Data analysts

◦     Process analysts

◦     Database administrators

◦     Application designers

 

Prerequisites:

It is recommended that students take BA20: How to Gather and Document User Requirements before taking this course, OR have practical professional experience in all of topics covered in the BA20 course, including Requirements Management.

 

Learn How to:

◦     Create more accurate and complete requirements

◦     Use diagramming to communicate project scope

◦     Create a data model to define and describe project requirements

◦     Create and use functional decomposition diagrams, entity relationship diagrams and dataflow diagrams

◦     Use dataflow diagrams to validate data and process models

 

course synopsis:

In today’s complex business environment, integration of multiple functional areas combined with fuzzy requirements is a fact of life—a picture is truly worth a thousand words. The techniques used in logical data and process modeling focus on presenting a complete picture of the important requirements of the business (and the related project) through significant user involvement in the analysis phase.

 

This course provides techniques for effectively analyzing and modeling any area of your business and creating logical data and process models that show how data flows and work progresses. The approaches taught in this class are designed to focus the attention on the important requirements of the business that are discovered through significant user involvement during the analysis phase.

 

Participants will learn how to create models without being limited by technology or organizational structure. The course exercises are designed to reinforce the techniques taught in class—entity relationship diagramming, functional decomposition diagramming and dataflow diagramming.

 

course topics:

Introduction

◦     System development challenges

◦     Benefits of modeling

◦     Components of logical process models: moving from dataflow to process

◦     Characteristics of essential modeling

 

Approaches to Functional Decomposition

◦     Concepts of Perfect Technology

◦     Top down and bottom up approaches

◦     Event partitioning

◦     Using functional decomposition diagrams

 

Introduction to Logical Data Modeling

◦     Purpose and components

◦     Data redundancy and derived data

◦     Different levels of data modeling

 

The Conceptual Data Model

◦     Discovering entities, attributes and relationships

◦     Analyzing attributes and choosing unique identifiers

◦     Relationships and cardinality

 

The Logical Data Model

◦     Super-types and sub-types

◦     Attributive and associative entities

◦     Documenting data constraints

 

Normalization and the Physical Data Model

◦     The physical data model

◦     The role of the database designer

 

The Process Diagram in Context

◦     Purpose and components

◦     Rules and conventions

◦     Leveled data flow diagrams

 

Verifying and Presenting Models

◦     Accuracy and completeness

◦     Internal verification and external validation

◦     Effective presentation

 

CASE Tools and Transition to OO/UML

◦     Major functions of CASE tools

◦     Introduction to Object Orientation (OO) and Unified Modeling Language (UML)

◦     Impact of OO/UML on the business analyst

 

Other Information:

PMBOK® Guide Knowledge Areas:

◦     Project Integration Management

◦     Project Scope Management

◦     Project Quality Management

◦     Project Communications Management

 

Professional Development Units (PDUs): 30