[CLUE-Tech] Data models, diagrams, process models documentation

[Sean LeBlanc]

On 08-16 10:33, Kevin Cullis wrote:
> Sean,
> 
> Anything and everything about it.
> 
> >From a perspective of documentation, most organizations do it lousy,
> others haven't keep it up as tightly as it should (a friend recently
> started a project where the docs of the company in bankruptcy is two
> years old).  I'm also eager to find out what best practices, if any,
> people follow.  Do they follow certain principles when doing this? Are
> they organized to make it easier to follow or update?  Those type of
> questions.

Oh. Well, I can't say I do much documentation. I document code. I use the
data model more as a living document - that is, I'm more compelled to use
database modeling tools[*] to manage the database than I am by its properties
of documentation.

I also use a Wiki to put away some high-level info about projects and
whatnot.

[*] And I really can't grok people who just make database changes directly
via tools like SQL Enterprise Manager, isql, or SQL*Plus or what have you.
I've worked with folks who insisted on doing this even when there are three
or more copies of the same database that we need to keep in sync (dev, test,
production, for example) AND we have a copy of a tool like Oracle Designer.
I guess part of my irritation at this comes when I go to use a DB and it
doesn't match the model, so I guess I do rely on the benefit of
documentation that the model provides. The other part of my irritation at
this practice also comes from watching people work harder, not smarter (to
abuse a management phrase) and inevitably bungling things up for other
developers. "What? That column is missing in production? Oh, yeah, I made
the other changes out there, but not that one. Ooops." Many tools provide
versioning of the model (imagine!) and even if they don't, you can version
the file yourself using CVS, VSS, etc. 


> On Sat, 2003-08-16 at 09:48, Sean LeBlanc wrote:
> > On 08-15 21:10, Kevin Cullis wrote:
> > > Hey all,
> > > 
> > > Does anyone know of good documentation template sources of data models,
> > > diagrams, and process models?  I'm curious to see what others are doing
> > > to see if there are any improvements to be had from what I've seen or
> > > been working on.
> > 
> > Kevin,
> > 
> > I'm not sure what you are asking for. Are you asking for what others' data
> > models/class diagrams/etc look like?
> > 
> > Besides way expensive tools like Rational or PowerDesigner (I think
> > PowerDesigner runs to 10K if you get the full suite, 3K for just the
> > "DataArchitect" part), I have found ArgoUML (open source) which can do UML.
> > There is also a plugin for Eclipse called Omondo which can do UML, too.
> > There is also a more slicked-up commercial product that is based on ArgoUML,
> > but I can't remember the name right now.
> > 
> > As for the data modeling, if anyone has found something open source/free
> > that has even 1/10th the capability of PowerDesigner or ERWin or Oracle
> > Designer, I'd like to hear about it...

-- 
Sean LeBlanc:seanleblanc at americanisp.net  
http://users.americanisp.net/~seanleblanc/
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