Data Models have Many Benefits. Here are 10 of them:
by Michael Blaha 1. Higher quality. Just as architects consider blueprints before constructing a building, you should consider data before building an app. On average, about 70 percent of...
View ArticleBeware ‘Big Schema’
by Michael Blaha Most everyone has heard of “big data” – the popular term for data so massive it’s difficult to manage. Today, the volume of search engine queries, online retail sales and Twitter...
View ArticleUse Cases are Overblown
by Michael Blaha A use case is a piece of functionality that an app can perform. Each app has many use cases and the use cases taken collectively specify the app’s functionality. For an example,...
View ArticleSpecify the Data Model and the Database Design
by Michael Blaha Many organizations today outsource software development. You, the customer, specify your requirements and the vendor is supposed to build software that meets your requirements. But...
View ArticlePlease Index Foreign Keys!
by Michael Blaha In the database literature, the lore has been to first design a schema and then predict the query mix to decide on a tuning strategy. This approach can work, but it is risky and error...
View ArticleSQL Is More than Just Store and Retrieve
by Michael Blaha I often work with programmers to build applications. It never ceases to amaze me that many programmers look at SQL as a store and retrieve mechanism and see nothing more. Their...
View ArticleDo Use Referential Integrity
by Michael Blaha Generally the most pressing problems for software development concern quality, time to market, and cost. If you define referential integrity (RI) in your software you can improve all...
View ArticleWhen To Use the UML for Databases (And When Not To)
by Michael Blaha The UML is a popular notation for modeling software artifacts. Even though the UML was mostly developed for programming, it is also relevant for databases. This article takes a...
View ArticleBe Wary of Database Layer Frameworks
by Michael Blaha Over the years we’ve seen a number of projects where application architects use a generic layer to hide a database. This is a common approach with object-oriented languages accessing a...
View ArticleDatabase Archaeology
by Michael Blaha Few database projects start with a clean slate. Many operational applications have legacy databases as a source of data and ideas. Analytical applications have the operational...
View ArticlePresenting Data Models
by Michael Blaha So you have prepared a data model. You’re proud of your work. Now how do you explain the model to others? You want them to understand your work and you want their feedback. We can...
View ArticleTraversal of Data Models
by Michael Blaha Developers routinely use data models for defining database structure. This is beneficial, but it uses only part of data modeling’s power. Data models not only capture data structure,...
View ArticleWhy Doesn’t SOA Use Data Models?
by Michael Blaha The short answer is that’s there’s no good reason. SOA, the Service-Oriented Architecture, is a popular approach for organizing business functionality. From the literature it’s clear...
View ArticlePrimary Key and Foreign Key Errors to Avoid
by Michael Blaha Few IT applications are truly grass roots. Rather most new applications are intended to replace or complement existing applications. As a result, we often find ourselves working with...
View ArticleMore Database Design Errors – Confusion with Many-to-Many Relationships
by Michael Blaha My last blog addressed primary key and foreign key errors. Now let’s look at errors with many-to-many relationships. A many-to-many relationship is an intersection of two entities. A...
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