At the end of March, my friends at Sandhill Consultants and Axis Software Designs ran a great webinar which was based on SAP PowerDesigner, but was also addressed to a more general audience, who would be interested in various aspects of data management, such as data quality, data governance, and metadata management. Largely, it was about converting “What to do” (our wonderful data management strategy and intentions) into “How to do it” (governance, tools, and best practices). One key topic is the need to be able to trust our metadata (otherwise it could be useless).
Here’s the link to the webcast – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRrj43tkOFI.
For quite a while now, Marcie Barkin Goodwin (from Axis Software Designs) has been helping organisations hit the ground running, with a managed Modelling Environment (known as Enterprise Modelling SOS), which can support the top three data modelling tools (erwin, ER/Studio and PowerDesigner), and includes
- Established Data Model Lifecycle(s)
- Quality Control standards for Metadata
- Repeatable Processes
- Reusable Data Structures
- Defined Measures and Metrics
- a Centralised Communication Mechanism
The whole thing revolves around the strategy of reusing modelling artefacts – which is vital for successful modelling within the enterprise. The modelling tool that they use in this webcast to illustrate the strategy is SAP PowerDesigner, a tool with a long history of providing comprehensive traceability within and between models of various types, not just data models. A key tool feature mentioned is the “Change List” feature, which allows users to check model changes into the Repository to be reviewed – until those changes are approved, the ‘real’ repository model is not updated. This is a much better method than emailing models to your friends, or asking them to have multiple versions of the same model on their workstation at the same time.
For reuse, the PowerDesigner Library is essential – it pushes reusable resources out to users when they connect to repository. These could be tool-specific resources (such as Report Templates), models, or model templates.
Intrigued? Take a look at another recent Sandhill webcast – “The Convergence of Data Modeling and Data Governance”
Take a look at the Sandhill channel on YouTube, or at my PowerDesigner channel on YouTube if you want to see more videos of PowerDesigner in action.