Re: Len Silverston's Universal Data Models sanity

"dataman" <dataman_at_mail.ev1.net> wrote in message news:<4099032c.530.41_at_news2>...
> What's the risk? $50? If nothing else, another opinion is
> worth the investment. Len recently spoke at one of user
> groups and he's been working on these models for years.
> He's covered many aspects of business relationships most
> folks haven't even thought of. That alone makes the small
> investment worthwhile.

$50 may be negligible by American standards, but in some countries it is comparable to a monthly salary.

Anyway, I find observing different data models certainly helpful in broadening your perspective.

If you don't want to spend $50, there are other resources like the dm-discuss_at_yahoogroups.com (read the archives) or http://www.databaseanswers.com/data_models/ (but the models here are much more simplistic).

One point you get from Len Silverton's book: the importance of the PARTY-ROLE concept. I've seen countless models with separate VENDOR-CUSTOMER tables and they are one of the main sources of data duplication (because customers can be vendors for different products and vice versa).

--
Pascal