What can power designer do for me

What can PowerDesigner do for me? 30/11/2011

EMEA PowerDesigner Virtual User Group,
1st December, 2011

30/11/2011 EMEA PowerDesigner Virtual User Group, December 1st, 2011 1

Agenda
What is Metadata?

PowerDesigner and Metadata

PowerDesigner Essentials

Examples

1


What is metadata?
Is it “data about data”?
Sort of, but not really
So metadata is …
Information Metadata
The Metadata Archipelago
The four ‘D’s

30/11/2011 December 1st, 2011 3

Is metadata “data about data”?
If you ask us for our definition of metadata,
before we can even think about what it really
means, we hear ourselves say aloud, “Data
about data.” This is, however, a poor definition.
A good definition would have to be clear,
complete, and correct.
It does not provide examples nor distinguish
how metadata really differs from data.
Therefore, we need a better definition for the
term metadata.


2


So Metadata is …
Steve Hoberman once spoke on a metadata-
related topic with several DAMA chapters and
user groups. Collectively, they came up with the
following definition for metadata:
Metadata is text, voice, or image that describes what the
audience wants or needs to see or experience. The audience
could be a person, group, or software program. Metadata is
important because it aids in clarifying and finding the actual
data.
There are at least six types of metadata: business (also known
as ‘semantic’), storage, process, display, project, and program.


Information Metadata
Logical
Data Business Data Items
Structures
add semantics
Concepts

Database XML
Schemas Design Schemas
Patterns
Reports
Data Transformation Non-DBMS
Screens & Lineage files

Lines represent shared metadata elements, and/or links
between metadata elements.

3


Organisation
Information Metadata (incl. Locations
& Assets) and IT Service Management
People Configuration Management

Project &
Application Resource
Architecture Management
Middleware
Business Services
Technical
Architecture Rules and
semantics Systems Devt.
Methods
IT Assets & Processes
S/W Hardware
Licences Web Services
WSDL & UDDI

Business Processes

The metadata archipelago

The Four Ds of Metadata
These points summarise the ways in which metadata can
be used.

Discover & Document
Design
Do


4


The Four Ds of Metadata
Discover

• what you know about the present

Document

• Enterprise Architecture, Processes, Data Models, Data Movements, Business
Rules etc

Describe / Design

• Construct models that describe the future, such as processes, databases,
messages, applications, and data movements

Do

• Create real artefacts from the models, such as databases or XML schemas;
manage changes to those artefacts; enable impact analysis



5


Loosely Coupled for success
There are many reasons why models are produced, for business
people and technologists, and as a result PowerDesigner’s
underlying technology allows these models to be loosely coupled.
The relationships between models are preserved, as changes on
both sides impact the other.
Over the years, this philosophy has been extended from data
modelling, into application modelling, process modelling, and most
recently, enterprise architecture - linking architecture, data,
application, and process together at all levels of abstraction.

Paraphrased from David Dichmann’s foreword to ‘Data Modeling Made
Simple with PowerDesigner’


PowerDesigner metadata scope
business requirements Conceptual and
business rules logical data structures
business processes databases
Enterprise Architecture data movements
Glossary of Terms XML vocabularies
Object-Oriented design

30/11/2011 December 1st, 2011 12

6


Enterprise Architecture

PowerDesigner Editions EA Frameworks

Enterprise Architecture Models

Object-Oriented Models
Information Architecture
Business Process Models Business Process Models

Conceptual Data Models Conceptual Data Models

Enterprise Architect
Data Movement Models Data Movement Models
Data Modelling
Information Architect

Repository Repository Repository

Web-based Authoring Web-based Authoring Web-based Authoring
Data Architect/RE

Logical Data Models Logical Data Models Logical Data Models
Data Architect/DM

Physical Data Models Physical Data Models Physical Data Models

XML Models XML Models XML Models

Core Core Core


Frameworks (1)

Thanks to Jay Stevens for this framework

7


Frameworks (2)


Link
and
Sync


8



A typical Business
Process Model
This was created in
PowerDesigner, but could
equally have been drawn in
a ‘drawing tool’.


9


why not use a drawing tool? (1)
Drawing tools communicate ideas visually, and may
capture some additional information about some of
the objects represented
each diagram stands alone: if a process appears on five
diagrams, there is no connection between those five
symbols; you cannot ensure that those five diagrams
are consistent in how they depict that process, nor is
there a way of knowing whether or not the process
also appears on a sixth diagram that you haven’t been
told about


why not use a drawing tool? (2)
There is also no link from that process to any objects
that were generated from it, and no link to any
associated objects
Objects appear to live in a disconnected world. When
it comes to managing change, that disconnected
world gets very uncomfortable
In conclusion:
Drawing tools do not manage metadata


10


PowerDesigner Building Blocks
Not Just a Load Of sub-objects
Symbols links
models examples
diagrams
objects

30/11/2011 December 1st, 2011 21


11


Dependencies


Not Just a Load Of Symbols
Each type of PowerDesigner diagram supports certain
specific types of objects, and each object created in a
diagram is represented by a symbol.
Anything that appears on a diagram is a symbol. Most
PowerDesigner objects can be represented on diagrams, so
they have their own symbols.
Links between objects can also have symbols, such as the
process flows in the sample BPM.
Some objects, such as Data Items and Domains, cannot
appear on PowerDesigner diagrams, so they do not have
symbols.


12


PowerDesigner practices
Leverage existing Link
documentation Mapping Editor
Excel Import Custom Traceability Links
Requirements Import Collaboration
Create and manage Repository
generate artefact
Communication
XML
Web portal
BPEL Reports
DB Excel export
Refactor
round-trip
XML
Databases
PowerBuilder applications

30/11/2011 December 1st, 2011 25


13


Enterprise Architecture



14


Data Modeling Made Simple
with PowerDesigner
The cheapest place to buy the
book initially will be the
publisher’s web site – you can
save 20% on the USD 79.95 list
price if you pre-order at
http://www.technicspub.com/
– use code PD20Promo at the
checkout.
International delivery ranges
from $10 to $25 dependent on
your location; I don’t know if
Canada counts as
‘international’, though.
30/11/2011 December 1st, 2011 29

Contact Me
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8123 8756 (forwarded to mobile)
UK mobile: +44 (0) 794 293 0648
Skype: gmcgeachie
Twitter: metadatajunkie
Email: George.McGeachie @ MetadataMatters.com
Blog: http://metadatajunkie.wordpress.com/


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