I’ve written some more, now..http://www.datamodel.com/index.php/2016/02/16/is-logical-data-modeling-dead/

It seems this debate doesn’t end…

Just purchasing vendor applications is sorta like just purchasing a Sawzall and some new beams. It just works, right?

I *love* the idea of “Data Discovery Man” so much, I’m going to pick that as my Halloween costume this year.

Locating data is indeed a difficult issue. But one area that I see data modelers helping with is knowing the right questions to ask. Because without the right questions, you will never know if you have the right data.

If data modelers get better at asking the right questions, and helping to locate data, then they will be able to easily step into the New World that is coming.

Hi Thomas

My ‘pet’ subject is ERP metadata. But the general problem of ‘source data discovery’ is equally applicable to big ERP and CRM packages, and to homegrown systems. Our industry is very well tooled up for every aspect of data manipulation (modelling, ETL, BI…..) but the missing bit is data discovery. How to locate the data that I need for my Information Management project.

As you say data modellers are well placed to address this and I dream of the data modeller stepping into a phone booth, and re-emerging as ‘Data Discovery Man’ – see how he locates that Parent-Child relationships!

The barrier that I see to this is the perception many have of the stereotype data modeller. There are a good number of our band that are overly concerned with the niceties of Third Normal Form and what constitutes a Conceptual rather than a Logical model. Many in the wider BI world will look upon the data modeller as a barrier to getting the project done, rather than as a help. IMHO, that’s something we have to change.

Nick,

Great comments, thanks for sharing.

Funny, but the other day I found myself thinking about this post, and then today you left a comment! We *might* be sharing some brain bandwidth, I don’t know.

My thoughts were how the current trends in tech are removing hardware as a bottleneck for applications and systems, and how data professionals need to know more about how data moves through the enterprise and less about racking servers. Data modeling is one of those areas where such expertise already sits, and I think they are well poised to have a role in the enterprise for years to come.

Thanks!

Who develops big systems from scratch any more? Most companies buy a package and then extend it (if necessary) to fit their requirements.

Problem there is that the package rarely replaces all legacy, so they end up having to coexist with the package. And there is still a need to get data out into some kind of BI world, even if its in a package.

These are classic jobs for the data modeller:

1) I need to interface XYZ package with my home-grown Widget system. How do I understand the data structure of both so I can see what the fit is

2) I need to pull data out of the ‘black box’ package to put into my Warehouse – where do I find what I need?

In the old days, the data model of each system was printed out and stuck to the wall in the DBA’s office. Try doing that with a SAP system that has 90,000 tables 🙂

Of course every BI/ETL tool under the sun purports to have an interface into these packages, but mostly they are just ‘pipes’ for siphoning off data. You still have to work out ‘which’ data.

The data modeller should be king (or queen) in this world, but as a profession, we are not good at blowing our own trumpets to let people know how we can help.