Database Design for Smarties
Using UML for Data Modeling
Whether building a relational, object-relational, or object-oriented database, database developers are increasingly relying on an object-oriented design approach as the best way to meet user needs and performance criteria. This book teaches you how to use the Unified Modeling Language-the official standard of the Object Management Group-to develop and implement the best possible design for your database. Inside, the author leads you step by step through the design process, from requirements analysis to schema generation. You'll learn to express stakeholder needs in UML use cases and actor diagrams, to translate UML entities into database components, and to transform the resulting design into relational, object-relational, and object-oriented schemas for all major DBMS products.
Database Design for Smarties provides a tutorial approach to understanding the concepts of UML that you can use to design databases using object-oriented methods. It also helps you to understand how to translate those designs into relational, object-relational, and object-oriented databases with examples. The book uses the stories of Sherlock Holmes to illustrate how a master database designer might approach application database design.
“Build bridges before you, and don't let them burn down behind you after you've crossed. Because database design is iterative and incremental, you cannot afford to let your model lapse. If your data model gets out of synch with your schema, you will find it more and more difficult to return to the early part of design. Again, CASE tools can help if they contain reverse-engineering tools for generating models from schemas, but again those tools won't support much of the techniques in this book. Also, since the OO model support more than just simple schema definition, lack of maintenance of the model will spill over into the general system design, not just database design.”
Readers' Views
"This is an excellent tutorial to using UML and sound object-oriented techniques for the express purpose of designing data models for a database. Well written, it deserves a place on every database designer's bookshelf."
Andreas L. Matern
"This is the book for serious data base designers. The others i read have been very un-creative and state the obvious."
gary john johnson
"Should be required reading. This is perhaps the best book I've read about databases and UML. Muller provides insight about different RDBMS's and ORDMS's for each subject. The various characteristics of Oracle, Sybase and others are discussed in context to the subject of using UML to design databases. This is not a sales pitch for one product or another. My only complaints: there's no errata (though I'm not sure there needs to be one) and there's no online forum at the publishers site. I've enjoyed reading this book, Muller has kept this rather dry subject interesting."
Christopher P. Hubbard
