Universal Data Models founder, Len Silverston, is the
author of ‘The Data Model Resource Book, Revised Edition, Volumes 1 and 2’ and ‘The Data Model Resource
CD-ROM’. Mr. Silverston’s books provide a library of common data
models and data warehouse designs for common functions and industry specific requirements with precise documentation and examples of data
instances. This provides readers with a clear guide towards understanding the rationale
behind many of the base ‘universal data model’ constructs. The first edition was rated as
#12 on the Computer Literacy Best Seller list. Volume 1 provides common data models and data warehouse designs that are useful across industries and Volume 2 provides additional data models applicable to various industries. The associated CD-ROMs and electronic products contain the SQL code to implement the book models as well as electronic diagrams that you can customize for your own needs.
Click the below links to find out more information about The Data Model Resource Books or the associated electronic products.
he Data
The Data Model
Resource Book, Revised Edition, Volume 1, A Library of Universal Data Models For All Enterprises
By Len Silverston;
Published by Wiley Computer Publishing
The Data Model
Resource Book, Revised Edition, Volume 2, A Library of Universal Data Models For Industry Types
By Len Silverston;
Published by Wiley Computer Publishing
he Data
The CD-ROM for Volume 1 of The Data Model
Resource Book, Revised Edition - Contains all the SQL and electronic diagrams for the Volume 1 Book
By Len Silverston;
Published by Wiley Computer Publishing
To find out more information or to learn about the downloadable demos or the Volume 2 industry electronic products that contain
all the SQL to implement the models for a variety of industries, click here to go to the Data Model Resource Site.
To view the companion web site that contains supplemental information about the books and electronic products, click here.
Book Description:
Proven data models that save companies' time and money
developing databases and data warehouses.
The Data Model Resource Book provides a common set of data
models for specific functions common to most businesses, such as sales, marketing, order
processing, budgeting, and accounting. Readers can apply more than one data model to their
own company to meet specific data needs. This revised editions offers about 3 times as many models as the first edition with substantial updates to almost all the models.
A CD-ROM, sold separately, contains all of the SQL for the
data models contained in the book in Oracle, SQL Server and generic SQL
formats.
Click here to review the text within Chapter
1: Introduction or Chapter 2: People and Organizations
Praise for the Data Model Resource Book
“The Data Model Resource Book, Revised Edition, Volume 1 is the best book I’ve seen on data architecture. It does not merely address the top levels of a data architecture (Zachman Framework row one or two); it provides both common and industry-specific logical models as well as data designs that may be customized to meet your requirements. The end result is a is a rich framework whose models span the higher and lower levels of a data architecture, including high-level models, logical models, warehouse designs, star schemas, and SQL scripts. You can use the data models, designs, and scripts as templates or starting points for your own modeling, an introduction to subject areas you might not be familiar with, a reference to validate your existing models, and a help to building an enterprise data architecture. The book provides techniques to transform models from one level to another, as well as tips and techniques for getting the appropriate levels of abstraction in the models. Instance tables (sample data) help bring the models to life. I have customized and used the models from the first edition on many projects in the last two years-it is an invaluable resource to me.”
Van Scott
President, Sonata Consulting, Inc.
“Len Silverston has produced an enormously useful two-volume compendium of generic (but not too generic) data models for an extensive set of typical enterprise subject areas, and for various industries that any data modeler will likely encounter at some point in his or her career. The material is clearly written, well organized, and goes below the obvious to some of the more perverse and difficult information requirements in an enterprise. This is an invaluable resource for doing one's homework before diving into any modeling session; if you can't find it here, there is certainly a very similar template that you can use for just about any situation with which you might be faced.”
William G. Smith
President, William G. Smith & Associates
“In today’s fast-paced e-oriented world, it is no longer acceptable to bury business constraints in hard-to-change data structures. Data architects must comprehend complex requirements and recast them into data architecture with vision for unforeseen futures.
Len’s models provide an outstanding starting point for novice and advanced data architects for delivering flexible data models. These models position an organization for the business rule age. Their proper implementation and customization allows the organization to externalize and manage business policies and rules so that the business can proactively change itself. In this way, the data architecture, based on Len’s models and procedures for customizing them, becomes by design the foundation for business change.”
Barbara von Halle
Founder, Knowledge Partners, Inc.
“These books are long overdue and a must for any company implementing universal data models. They contain practical insights and templates for implementing universal data models and can help all enterprises regardless of their level of experience. Most books address the needs for data models but give little in the way of practical advice. These books fill in that void and should be utilized by all enterprises.”
Ron Powell
Publisher, DM Review
“Businesses across the world are demanding quality systems that are built faster by IT shops. This book provides a foundation of patterns for data modelers to expand upon and can cut days, if not weeks, off a project schedule. I have found The Data Model Resource Book, Revised Edition, Volume 1 valuable as a resource for my modeling efforts at L.L. Bean, Inc. and feel it is an essential component in any modelers toolkit.”
Susan T. Oliver
Enterprise Data Architect, L.L. Bean, Inc.
“I was first introduced to The Data Model Resource Book three years ago when I was hired by a firm who wanted an enterprise data model. This company did not believe the dictum that ‘all companies are basically the same;’ they felt they were somehow unique. After a little analysis with Len Silverston's help, we found that we were actually quite a bit the same: we had customers, accounts, employees, benefits, and all the things you'd find in any corporation. All we had to do was adapt the product component of Len's book and we were ready to move ahead with a great framework for all of our data. A CD-ROM that accompanies the book provided scripts to build the model in Oracle very quickly. We then began mapping all of our detailed data types to the enterprise model and, voila, we could find a place for all of those various spellings and misspellings of Account Number.
Volume 2 of this revised edition provided even more exciting features: models of industry-specific data. I began to see interesting patterns that permeated this volume. For example, a reservation is a reservation, whether you're an airline, a restaurant, or a hotel. (We even have something similar in the oil industry--the allocation.)
Another concept from the book that has changed my thinking and vocabulary is the word ‘party.’ I recently managed a project in which an employee could also function as a customer and as an on-line computer user. The team was in disagreement regarding a name for this entity; but after checking The Data Model Resource Book, we realized that here we had a party playing three roles.
Whether your job is to jump-start a data warehouse project or borrow ideas for any subject area in your next operational database, I highly recommend The Data Model Resource Books, Revised Edition, Volume 1 and 2 as your bible for design.”
Ted Kowalski
Data architect, Equilon Corporation
AMAZON.COM COMMENTS
A reader from Denver, Colorado , October 2, 1999
Fantastic Resource for Launching Business Data Models
The most difficult part of creating a business data model is recognizing and correctly
identifying the entities of the business and the true relationships that connect them. Do
this part wrong, and the rest of your design and programming effort will suffer immensely.
Get it right, and the rest will come easy. This book gives you a tremendous jump start on
the modeling task. Rather than trying to describe how to do it, this book works through
the actual development of many of the most commonly encountered business data models. Not
only are business entities identified and classified, but the complex relationships that
most information systems need to address are modeled clearly and concisely.
Whether you use the templates as presented or just use them as a basis in your own
modeling efforts, you should find this book a great resource. I wish something like this
had been available years ago.
A reader from Overland Park, Kansas , July 28, 1999
Great generic data models
I have been looking for a book like this for years. It is a great book. I would describe
it as a "Pattern-Oriented Data Modeling" book. The authors do not provide
"how-to" guide lines. They provide generic data models.
The book includes real-world examples like work orders, invoices, an so on (not the
classic car-wheels or house-rooms examples that you never find in real life).
There are several great logical data models. Physical models are data warehouse
oriented though (this is the star left in my rating). I would rather like to see both
(data warehouse and non-data warehouse) physical models.
A reader from Englewood, Colorado , July 15, 1999
Valuable addition to any designer's library
Reusing only one of the data models in this book saved me hours of effort. The book is
well organized for quick access to the relevant models. A great resource for kick starting
a data modeling or application development effort.
scottv1@airmail.net from USA , March 2, 1999
Excellent resource of data models and physical designs
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.
A reader from Aurora Colorado , October 27, 1998
An excellent data model reference book.
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.
kevinmcniff@home.com from Orange County, California, USA ,
September 9, 1998 
Excellent for Starting Design or Checking Existing Designs
I've been designing data models for some time (15 years..Yikes!) I picked up this book to
test my model for products in relation to producing a bill of materals. In addition to
enhancing that area of my design, I adopted their organization/person/relationship design.
If you are designing, or thinking of designing, OLTP databases you need this book. If you
don't understand this book, study hard!!!
Contact Universal Data Models, info@univdata.com or call (303) 688-1412 to find out
how your organization can save time and money by "jump starting" your data
modeling and data warehousing efforts.
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