The Data Model Resource Book: A Library of Logical Data and Data Warehouse Designs

Rating:
Summary: A Good Resource for Initiating a Modeling Effort
Review: Have you ever had difficulty overcoming the inertia of "getting started" when preparing for a requirements gathering session? How often do you encounter subject matter experts who are not quite sure just what it is that they "need" from an information standpoint? I have found "The Data Model Resource Book" to be of significant assistance in preparing for Logical Modeling Sessions. In an effort to develop "Straw Man" models, in particular, this book has proven to be an excellent resource. In some cases, the basic concepts identified in the book, if not the structures of the models themselves, survive the analysis effort. The definitions and the structures provide stimuli to the thinking of the project team, resulting in a more thorough analysis of the subject area under consideration.I agree that Kimball's book "The Data Warehouse Toolkit" is probably the best resource going for data warehouse design and implementation with today's technology. It is true that this book is not the "Silver Bullet" for slaying the data modeling werewolf. Nonetheless, for a wide variety of applications, (particularly Operational Applications) "The Data Model Resource Book" has been of much assistance.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent data model reference book.
Review: I found this book to be well written and a reflection of a vast amount of data modeling experience. The book provides insight into a number of very good data modeling techniques and provides enough detail to enable substantial productivity benefits over developing a data model from scratch. I see this book as an excellent reference for anyone needing to develop a data model as a part of any system development activity, including data warehousing. I agree however with the other reviewers of this book that star schema design is a critical component of most data warehousing solutions and that if your developing a data mart solution that Ralph Kimball's "Data Warehouse Toolkit" is an excellent book to buy as well.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource of data models and physical designs
Review: The Resource Book is one of the more useful books I have seen on data architecture. It is just what it says: an (excellent) resource library for seven logical data models, one warehouse design, and two data mart designs. These data models and designs can be used as templates or starting points for your own modeling, an introduction to subject areas you might not be familiar with, validating your existing models, and a help to building a corporate data model. The logical models tend to be very complete. You probably won't need all their features, but they provide a good reference.

The book provides a good notation for showing the relationship among high-level models, mid-level models, and data warehouse and data mart designs. Instance tables (sample data) help bring the models to life. The book also provides a good methodology for transforming logical data models to data warehouse designs. The book is an extremely useful resource.

Rating:
Summary: good for a start, but...
Review: This is a good book to get the juices flowing if you are unsure of how to model certain business processes, but some of the models in the book are poor examples of database design. Some of the data warehouse models, in particular, are alarmingly bad, and don't follow some proven best practices.

I think the beginner database designer will get a lot out of it -- seeing the complexities in database design. The expert will get a little from it -- a good kick-start on a design, but you will be able to see the faults. Someone with a little knowledge that relies on this book too much, however, will be sorry.