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Metadata Matters

Joined-up organisations trust their metadata

Metadata

Work smarter with PowerDesigner – discover the Excel Import Wizard for £40 / $48

September 8, 2020September 8, 2020George McGeachieLeave a comment

Last week I demonstrated how easy it is to import and draw a complete data model from an Excel file, using a silent video to show the steps. You can see it again here.

The Excel file I used in that video is just one of the sample files provided with my online training course called Using the Excel Import Wizard.

Completing the course will enable you to:

  1. Create and update models from Excel files
  2. Structure your Excel files correctly for the Excel Import Wizard
  3. Link imported objects to objects within other models; for example, linking LDM attributes to Domains defined in a different LDM.
  4. Improve the performance for importing very large Excel files
  5. Create multiple Excel Imports into a model from the same file, with different import rules
  6. Export information from a PowerDesigner model and re-import it after revisions
  7. Ensure that the Excel Import does not make unwanted changes to your model
  8. Create a complete Logical Data Model, merely by importing an Excel file
  9. Know when the Excel Import is not appropriate for your needs, and what the alternatives are

Click here to book this course

Metadata, PowerDesigner, TrainingExcel, import

Work smarter with #PowerDesigner – Searching for and opening a diagram in PowerDesigner Web

August 25, 2020George McGeachie3 Comments

PowerDesigner Web uses a web browser to expose the content of the PowerDesigner Repository to people who would never want to use the PowerDesigner client software. It allows them to view any model, make comments, and to edit some of those models.

Today I am going to show you how to find and open a diagram in PowerDesigner Web. To start our search, we click on the magnifying glass at the top of the PowerDesigner Web window:

Image

If you’re browsing using the Repository Explorer, the glass is in a slightly different location:

Image

The search window opens, allowing us to choose where the folder to search in and what to look for. The ‘Repository Root’ folder is okay for me, I want to search the whole repository, but I could select a folder on the left instead:

Image

We know that the diagram name was probably modified recently by a person called ‘McGeachie’, and that the diagram name includes the word ‘metamodel’, so we’ll set a couple of filters. To create the first one, I click on ‘Filters’ on the left-hand side of the page, then click on ‘Add Filter’. I can choose from several properties to filter by, and I’m going to choose ‘Modifier’ (the last user to modify the diagram):

Image

For the second filter, I’ll just use the simple option, typing the word ‘metamodel’ into the search box:

Click on the magnifying glass to start the search, and wait for a short while

Hmm, the search has found 2 things meeting my filters, both called ‘Metamodel’. I can see that the icons are different, but is one of them a diagram? I’ll investigate the other options on the toolbar, which allow me to group the results by object type, export to a CSV file, or export to a PDF file:

Grouping the result by object type is very useful, that’ll help me find what I’m looking for (a diagram in a Conceptual Data Model):

I found the diagram I’m looking for, now I want to take a look at it – how do I do that? Simple, select the diagram in the list, then click ‘Open’ at the foot of the search window.

I’ll probably want to look at this diagram again sometime, do I have to search for it every time I want to open it? Of course not!

The first option is to click on the star icon (see above), which will pin the diagram to my home page

  1. The second option is to locate the diagram using the ‘recently viewed’ tile on the home page
Click on this tile
Now click on the diagram image to open the diagram

To find out more about how Metadata Matters can help you learn about SAP PowerDesigner, please click here – SAP PowerDesigner.

Metadata, PowerDesigner, PowerDesigner Web, Tips, Tools

Business Transformation requires joined-up thinking. The power of SAP #PowerDesigner will help you with that

FeaturedLeave a comment

My latest presentation is now available on BrightTalk. The talk is about how organisations can use SAP PowerDesigner to help them ensure that their Business Transformation is effective. I cover the following topics:

– 6 simple questions businesses need to provide the answers to form a framework for enterprise architecture
– How PowerDesigner supports Enterprise Knowledge and Enterprise Governance
– How SAP PowerDesigner provides the essential impact analysis
– Real-world examples of PowerDesigner use

SAP PowerDesigner allows users to build a blueprint of their current enterprise architecture and visualise the impact of change before it happens.

Here’s the link to the webinar – https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/18335/434347

Business Rules, Conceptual Data Model, customising and extending, data governance, Data Lineage, Data Modeling, Data Modelling, Data Quality, Data Vault, Databases, EA, Enterprise Architecture, ERP, ETL, information management, Logical Data Model, Metadata, Methodology, Packaged Software, Physical Data Model, PowerDesigner, Requirements, Tools

Don’t underestimate what your modelling tool can do for you – an old tale of #PowerDesigner

April 15, 2020July 31, 2020George McGeachieLeave a comment

One of the key IT systems for any insurance broker will be the Quotations system, where they record details of all of the insurance companies they represent, the types of risk they might cover, all their customers, all the risks the customers would like to have covered, all the possible questions they could ask them to assess risk, all the answers they received, and the resulting quotes. In a commercial insurance broker, those quotations could be very large and complicated.

About 15 years ago, one such insurance broker’s quotations database had been designed to handle any product, any type of client, and any risk they might want to cover, without requiring any structural changes to the database or much change to the user interface. It was what we call a ‘metadata-driven’ database.

This was good for the business because they focused their attention on defining their requirements, and it was good for some of the developers because all they had to do was turn those requirements into data to store in tables – there were a lot of code tables, “question” tables, and “answer” tables. This knowledge was good for job retention.

However, the database design was not good for anybody who had to get data out of the database, perhaps to print out a quotation – to extract the right data you had to look up all sorts of code values to find the right words to use for labels, and the right data to extract.

So, they decided to extract the data from that database into another database that would make it easier for someone to look at or report on the data. Their data modelling tool was PowerDesigner (then owned by Sybase). For the nerds among you it was version 11 – SAP have recently issued version 16.7; under the numbering system Sybase used we’d probably be up to 26 or so.

Modelling and building the new database was not the biggest concern they had, their biggest headache was describing how to convert the quotations data into the new format in such a way that the developers could build it and the testers could test it. They also need to be able to migrate some of that data to their Policy Management system, and develop messages for their messaging infrastructure but I won’t talk about that, this tale is long enough already.

One day, the project team were surprised to see the head of the company’s Information Architecture team, who most of them knew at least by sight, come into their office and sit down at a PC in the corner. He sat there for two weeks beavering away on, well, something. Nobody would tell the project team what he was doing, so they assumed it was something hush-hush that needed to be done away from the rest of his team. All very mysterious 😊.

At the end of the two weeks, the outcome of his sweat and toil was revealed – it was an Access database. Please, don’t groan, especially if you can guess what’s coming next.

The Access database was, admittedly, an amazing thing – it was designed to hold the Physical Data Model of the Quotations database, as well as the Conceptual Data Model representing the business data, the Physical Data Model for the new database, and the links between those models. It could import the data models initially, but all modelling changes had to be entered manually. The database generated the specifications to tell the developers the rules for moving the data between the two databases.

Applying the changes was a bit tedious, as the team had to make the model changes in PowerDesigner first, then make them again in the Access database, and there was nothing visual about that database, no ERDs to look at, just lots of metadata. The modelling work was slowed down considerably.

I can hear your thoughts already, you’re wondering “What’s the point of this long ramble, is it another dig at Access databases?”.

I’ll leave you to figure that one for yourself, just let me tell you one interesting fact.

PowerDesigner version 11 already supported everything the Access database did – nobody had investigated the capabilities of their existing tool.

Conceptual Data Model, data governance, Data Modeling, Data Modelling, ETL, information management, Logical Data Model, Metadata, Methodology, Requirements, Tips, ToolsDatabase, Insurance, Modeling, Modelling, PowerDesigner

Improve your data modelling productivity with a new #PowerDesigner model extension #FIBO

January 21, 2020September 3, 2020George McGeachieLeave a comment

The Commercial version of the FIBO Data Model is now available, adding over 800 entities to the free version. That is 800+ more reasons why you need the “Ultimate Parents” PowerDesigner model extension.

If you want to improve your productivity even more (and who doesn’t want to do that?), a more comprehensive model extension will be available soon for the CDM and LDM. This will include the “Ultimate Parents” capabilities, plus features to help you with

  • diagram content and page layout, including
    • symbol visibility
    • set page size and orientation
    • add all possible objects
    • add things linked to an entity
    • add all inheritance links for an inheritance
  • removing Packages cleanly
  • showing and hiding foreign key or inherited attributes
  • creating ‘Proximity’ diagrams
  • applying naming standards
  • custom model validation tests

and more

To find out more, see the Contact page

Attributes, Conceptual Data Model, customising and extending, data governance, Data Modeling, Data Modelling, Data Quality, Data Vault, Databases, EA, Enterprise Architecture, information management, Logical Data Model, Metadata, Model Extension, Naming Standards, Physical Data Model, PowerDesigner, Product, Requirements, Tips, Tools
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