Advanced Data Modeling Workshop

Sharpen your data modeling skills!

This virtual Advanced Data Modeling Workshop will challenge your teams to produce a series of data modeling deliverables and, in the process, become more competent data modelers. Are you looking to improve on relational modeling? Dimensional modeling? NoSQL? Modeling in the cloud? Advanced techniques on integration, chronology, or architecture? Complete end-to-end modeling from conceptual through physical?

The Advanced Data Modeling course was amazing! I got a lot out of it and I loved how it focuses on business requirements, 6 strategic questions that help shape the conversation, and an amazing mechanism to score the completeness of the data model against the requirements. I recommend this course to anyone that is in or interested in Data Modeling, reducing integration friction by exposing information in a more consumable manner. Well done Steve! Justin D.

Meet with Steve and together choose one of several case studies designed to sharpen specific data modeling skills. Next, choose the set of deliverables you would like your team to complete, which will determine whether the workshop will be one or two days.

As an example, here are the deliverables from the Chips Inc. workshop:

1. Convince management of the value of a Common Business Language
2. Create a relational business terms model
3. Reconcile disparate perspectives (the mapping)
4. Build a logical data model using an API approach
5. Validate a data model with the Data Model Scorecard
6. Create a dimensional business terms model

During the virtual case study workshop, Steve will present data modeling topics and guide your group through step-by-step, playing different roles, including characters from the various case studies. Case studies cover many different industries, such as finance, hospitality, and retail. Expect a fast-paced educational yet entertaining course!

To give you a taste for a case study, here is the introduction to the Chips Inc. Workshop:

Imagine you are the Chief Information Officer for the bakery chain Chips Inc. Not only do you receive a salary and health benefits, but you also can eat as many pastries as you like for free from any of the 30 bakeries that Chips Inc. owns and operates.

Due to the independent culture of Chips Inc. — combined with how Chips Inc. grew by buying a bakery at a time — each bakery has its own way of operating. Each bakery uses its own systems such as Quicken, Excel, and sometimes even pencil and paper, to assist with ordering supplies, baking pastries, managing sales, and handling payroll.

With costs for raw materials such as sugar on the rise, and increased competition from other bakeries and high-end supermarkets, Chips Inc.’s executives are looking for ways to save money and therefore increase profits. One way is the potential savings in centralizing purchasing followed by a centralized payroll. Centralizing business processes such as purchasing should not only save money but also allow more consistent reporting across the organization, identifying additional ways to save money and uncovering new business opportunities. In addition, Chips Inc. would like to franchise their brand, recipes, and processes to other bakeries. Prior to approaching bakeries on franchising opportunities, Chips Inc. needs to follow more consistent practices across its 30 stores. Once consistent practices are in place, they can be applied to the franchisee bakeries.

The executive team is convinced — mostly due to a one-hour sales pitch presentation from a large software consulting organization — that centralizing business processes will take minimal effort. The presenter touted his software solution as a seamless way to integrate all Chips Inc. processes. “It’s as easy as baking a cookie,” this software consultant said as the executives smiled and nodded their heads in agreement. You, however, are not as optimistic. You wonder how a software solution can magically solve a very complex business problem.

After lunch, you stroll down the road to Chips Inc.’s flagship bakery to treat yourself to a free chocolate chip cookie. After showing the store employee your Chips Inc. badge and receiving your free cookie, you browse the tantalizing cakes, cupcakes, and cookies.

As an attempt to convince yourself of the similarity across bakeries, you decide to take a bus ride to another Chips Inc. bakery on the other side of town within an upscale neighborhood. Since this bakery caters to a higher-end clientele, what was called a cookie at the last bakery is called a biscuit in this bakery. This bakery has an extensive pie selection yet no cakes. They also sell parfaits, smoothies, and artisan breads which the first bakery did not carry.

As you munch on a free chocolate chip biscuit (which tastes strikingly similar to a chocolate chip cookie), questions start brewing:

What is a cookie and what is a biscuit, and how do they differ (if at all)?
How do pies and cakes differ?
Are artisan breads, smoothies, and parfaits within the scope of the pastry purchasing initiative?

Successfully purchasing ingredients for our bakeries requires a common set of terms. Asking the first bakery how much sugar they order for biscuits and the second bakery how much sugar they order for cookies would most likely cause confusion as the first bakery calls them cookies and the second biscuits. In addition, a third bakery sells dog biscuits that have different ingredients and therefore purchasing requirements than the biscuits from the second bakery.

Chips Inc. executives believe centralizing purchasing will be easy without realizing that each bakery speaks their own unique language. Or maybe management acknowledges the lack of a Common Business Language but assumes a software solution will magically solve the problems. It does not matter, though, if the two bakeries you visited that day both use the same system such as Microsoft Excel, if one bakery calls it cookie and the other biscuit, there are going to be challenges in centralizing purchasing… 

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