THE DATA ADMINISTRATION NEWSLETTER – TDAN.com
ROBERT S. SEINER – PUBLISHER

Author: David C. Hay
Publisher: Prentice Hall, 2002
ISBN: 0130282286

What an extraordinary new book David Hay has given us! I was actually first introduced to it though a marvelous article Dave wrote for the Oracle Development Tools User Group (ODTUG) Technical Journal called “Making Your Entities Behave: Entity Life Histories”. As Editor-in-Chief, I get to read the articles long before they are published. It was one of the most informative and well-written articles that I’d read. That’s about the time Dave told me it was based on a chapter from his new book. That did it! I ordered the book the same day!

The book, Requirements Analysis, all 450+ pages, was as excellent as our Journal article! Barbara von Halle in the forward says that this book “is destined to become the authoritative source for defining roadmaps from vision to architecture.” I agree completely!

I appreciated the discussion of the Zachman Framework and the rich sense of history that Dave brings to the topic. He is quick to give credit where credit is due and provides the substantial details on how we got from point A to point B. People like me who are deeply engrossed in producing software and database applications with assorted CASE tools will particularly appreciate this complete view. We don’t always understand the theory behind the tools we use. Dave is completing our missing education with his excellent work.

Systems rarely fail due to implementation. Almost always the points of failure can be found in the requirements analysis phase of development. As Dave says, “requirements analysis is the translation of a set of business owners’ views of the enterprise to a single, comprehensive architectural view of that enterprise.” Our failures are in not correctly capturing the business owners’ views and in the translation. This outstanding work provides the focus on how requirements analysis can be done productively and correctly. This will greatly reduce those points of failure.

The 45 pages devoted to a comparison of data modeling techniques at the end of the book are well worth the cost of the entire book all by itself. For me, it was lots of notations (some automated in a tools and others not) coming full circle. What a treat!! It also is an excellent transition to newer notations in XML and object oriented techniques that I’m still learning.

The index is excellent! It’s quite extensive, complete, and well organized. The bibliography is also exceptional and very complete. The glossary of terms is first rate! I especially liked the notations of chapters where the terms were documented. All of these excellent features point to the superb organization of the book. It’s a classic read and a must-have reference!