I know a data modelling trainer who has given hundreds of copies of the first edition of this book to those attending his courses. He did this because it was a great supplement to the material he covered on his training course. Is this second edition a worthy successor?
The author has expanded and restructured the book for this edition; it has grown considerably in size, from 134 to 360 pages. Additional topics have been added, partly based upon the presentations the author makes at seminars and conferences. Some of this additional material has been provided by experts in the respective fields - Bill Inmon, Michael Blaha and Graeme Simsion. This extra material doesn't come for free - the list price has increased two-fold.
This book is a well-scoped and well-written introduction to data modelling and related topics. The author's friendly presentation style really comes across in the text, avoiding the temptation to use geek-speak to impress the reader.
There is no CD included, but there is interaction of a kind, provided by 15 exercises to test your understanding.
I think all the material is great, but I have one minor gripe. In the first edition, there's a separate chapter on the importance of good defiinitions, describing the characteristics of good definitions (clarity, completeness and accuracy). While it is covered in the new book (page 102), it doesn't have the same punch as the original version. Getting people to put the effort into creating good definitions is one of the key challenges with data modelling, so I'd prefer more emphasis.
Should you buy this book?
* If you already have the 1st edition, then you buy the second edition for the extra material; don't throw away the first edition, use it as part of your internal marketing process, by giving it to someone who wants to know what data modelling is about. They'll thank you for it.
* If you're a business or IT person and need to understand more about 'doing' data modelling, buy this book. The first 100 or so pages should be compulsory reading for anyone who has to deal with data models or data modellers.
* If you want to understand more about data modelling without getting into details of 'doing it', consider
Data Modeling for the Business: A Handbook for Aligning the Business with IT Using High-Level Data Models (Take It With You), which Steve Hoberman co-authored.
