Re: RM of [Organizational] Data

"erk" <eric.kaun_at_gmail.com> wrote in message news:1114005215.871138.20370_at_z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> mountain man wrote:

...[big trim]...

>> IMO by implementing these things within the
>> model of the [organisational] data, there may be expected
>> to be a far greater use and utility of the model, because
>> both these items are dynamic and require management
>> (and admin, and wages, etc) alongside every single
>> instance of the data (model) ---- without exception.
>
> I'm unclear how modeling the organizations is different from modeling
> anything else, or allows a simpler model than general data. I
> understand that some parts of it will likely be hierarchical... most of
> the time. Other parts won't.

Modelling organisations is not different from modelling anything else except that its consideration will arise in every instance of use of a dbms, whereas "anything else" may not arise.

Here is an example of an organisation table:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[organisation] (

 [org_frame] [int] NOT NULL  (identifier)
 [org_id] [int] NULL ,
 [org_description] [varchar] (40)  NULL ,
 [org_lower] [int] NULL ,
 [org_upper] [int] NULL

with data (in this instance from a college management system) such as ...

org_id      Description                     org_lower   org_upper
----------- ------------------------------- ----------- ----------- 
0           Database Administrator          0           99
1           College Administration          100         299
2           Traineeships and Course Managem 100         299
3           Financial Information     100         400
4           GL Interface                   400         499
5           IT Helpdesk                     500         599
6           Trainer Portals                 600         699
7           Financial - Credit Control      700         799
8           EMS: Exception Management Syste 800         899
9           IT Helpdesk                     900         999
10          EIS: Executive Information Syst 1000        1099
12          CEO - Complete Access           100         999
13          Application Administrator       0           1099

The upper and lower values are used to map applications (with integer identifiers (eg) from 1 through to 1099) to each of the respective workgroups

All data is primarily related (in an external sense) to elements of the organisation and the organisation as a whole, and any relational model of the data should include in its scope a look at the external requirements. The current model is totally internal in that the relationships considered are like Codd's 12.

This was fine to get the rdbms engine off the ground (eg; Oracle 1979) but the environment has changed substantially since that time.

AFAIK Date does not mention "organisations" and whereas "business rules" are listed in his index, an entry for "organisation" is conspicously absent.

Yet it is clearly a model of organisational data and cannot be otherwise.

Pete Brown
Falls Creek
Oz
www.mountainman.com.au Received on Thu Apr 21 2005 - 09:57:44 CEST