Data Model Reviews – Best Practices

A formal review should be held during the modeling effort on large projects and
thereafter on regular intervals. The number and frequency of follow-up reviews depends
on the following:

• The interest level and amount of time available for reviews on the part of
the end-user and data modeling staff

• The volume and nature of the changes to the model that result from each
review session. If considerable changes are requested, it is important to
make these changes and/or additions to the model, and review these with
the requester within a reasonable length of time.

• The stability or maturity of the model. If the modelers have a high degree
of confidence in the model in terms of its completeness and accuracy
(based on previous reviews), fewer and less frequent reviews need to be
held in the future. The law of diminishing returns applies to data modeling
review sessions. Depending on the experience of the modelers, the first
review session could result in a 20-40% change in the model. The
percentage includes changes to entities as well as new entities that need
to be added. The second review could result in another 5 – 20% change.
If only 5-10% of the model has changes as a result of the second review,
a third formal review would not be prudent.

Who Should Review the Model?

The people involved in the review sessions depend on the maturity or evolutionary stage
of the model. The model should be reviewed in three stages or phases.

Stage 1 Review
After the modeling staff has incorporated business requirements into model, a
peer review session should be held among the members of the modeling staff for
content.

Stage 2 Review
After a stage 1 review has taken place, the definition of the entities should be
cleaned up, the metadata reviewed, and data model should be modified and
improved where necessary. At this point, another review session should be held
with those persons providing business requirements.

Iterations of stage 1 and stage 2 reviews should be conducted until a substantial

portion of the model has been developed. At this point, the modelers should
proceed with Stage 3.

Stage 3 Review
After any changes have been made as a result of the last stage 2 review, formal
review sessions should be scheduled and conducted. These formal reviews
should include the following:
 The data modeling staff
The manager(s) of the modelers
The persons who provided requirements
IT staff who are knowledgeable in the subject data areas covered by the data
model
IT staff including the developers and DBAs
Business users

IT staff should review the model prior to the business partners.

Preparing the reviewers

Those participating in the formal review should have advance notification of the
importance of the review process. This can be done through written communications
and reiterated in the first review session. The content of this notification is explained
below:

Explain to the reviewers why their participation in the review is critical to the
success of the data model. It is a foundation for the physical database design
and represents and communicates the business relevance of the information.

Explain how the reviewers will benefit from their participation in the data
modeling process. The model will provide them with an excellent communication
tool to better understand the information used within the warehouse, and the
relationships among the data. Thus, they can gain a better overall perception or
appreciation of the data, and its connectivity to other data used throughout the
various sections of the warehouse. The model is also an effective way to define
and communicate information requirement specifications. A relationship between
two entities represents not only the commonality or affinity of the business rules
and policies. Thus, the relationships on the model represent integrity constraints
and editing rules that must be implemented in the database that will use the
database design.

The objectives of the review

Explain the objectives of the review to the model reviewers. These basis objectives are
as follows:

• To review the accuracy of the model. Is the model a true reflection of the
business environment? For example, do the relationships among the entities
accurately reflect business rules and policy?

• To review the completeness of the model. Does the model contain all of the
categories of information necessary to conduct the business activities of the end-
users? Does the model provide for all data required to support the business
requirements? Are the entities capable of providing new and improved uses of
data to improve the competitive posture of the organization?

• To review the consistency of the model. Are there any inconsistencies in the way
that the data is planned to be stored? For example, are the attributes within an
entity consistent with the general nature and purpose of the table?
 • To review the adherence to Data Modeling Standards and Guidelines. Are
standards being followed? Are definitions for all entities/tables and
attributes/columns in the model? Have new abbreviations been documented
properly for future development efforts?

The Review Material

The reviewers should be given copies of the following prior to the review meetings:
1. Data Model in readable format (.pdf file or HTML)
2. Metadata listings including:
a. A listing of entities including their definitions.
b. A listing of attributes including their definitions and physical
characteristics (datatype, length, null option).
3. A list of business rules germane to the model.
4. Documentation about how to review and verify the data model.