A Comprehensive Analysis of Sybase Powerdesigner 16.0
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
white pAper A Comprehensive Analysis of Sybase® PowerDesigner® 16.0 InformationArchitect vs. CA ERwin Data Modeler r8.1 Standard Edition Version 2.1 www.sybase.com Table of Contents 1 Product Overviews 1 CA ERwin r8.1 Data Modeler 2 Sybase PowerDesigner 16.0 3 Data Modeling Activities 3 Overview 5 Types of Data Model 6 Design Layers 7 Managing the SAM-LDM Relationship 10 Forward and Reverse Engineering 10 Summary 10 Integrating Data Models with Requirements and Processes 11 Generating Object-oriented Models 11 Dependency Analysis 16 Model Comparisons and Merges 17 Update Flows 18 Required Features for a Data Modeling Tool 18 Core Modeling 26 Collaboration 29 Interfaces & Integration 39 Adding Value to Data Modeling 39 Managing Models as a Project 40 Dependency Matrices 41 Conclusions 41 Acknowledgements 41 Bibliography 41 About the Author introduCtion Data modeling is more than just database design, because data doesn’t just exist in databases. Data does not exist in isolation, it is created, managed and consumed by business processes, and those business processes are implemented using a variety of applications and technologies. To truly understand and manage our data, and the impact of changes to that data, we need to manage more than just models of data in databases. We need support for different types of data models, and for managing the relationships between data and the rest of the organization. When you need to manage a data center across the enterprise, integrating with a wider set of business and technology activities is critical to success. For this reason, this review will use the InformationArchitect version of Sybase PowerDesigner rather than their DataArchitect version. If all you need to do is create data models for an individual database, it is recommended you seek the cheapest tool or one that suits your specific technical deployment needs. However, when you are connecting data models to components of the broader architecture, I encourage you to read on to understand how CA ERwin compares to PowerDesigner InformationArchitect. In this review, I examine the capabilities provided by CA ERwin Data Modeler r8.1 Standard Edition, and Sybase PowerDesigner 16.0 InformationArchitect, using the evaluation editions available on each company’s web site. The PowerDesigner evaluation software provides the full capabilities, including a repository. The CA ERwin Data Modeler evaluation provides a limited set of capabilities — the Standard edition, which does not include the repository capability. produCt overviews Sybase PowerDesigner and CA ERwin Data Modeler are two of the market-leading data modeling tools available. Both enable you to create different types of data models, and link those data models to each other. Both enable you to reverse-engineer databases, to persist the design in a model, and generate changes to the database. Both tools provide a drawing canvas, and a variety of editing facilities for use in expanding the detail of the model. They also provide standard usability features such as undo/redo, and the ability to customize the style of your diagrams. They both allow you to share the information held in your models via reports, though only one provides a web portal. They both provide essential collaborative features such as a repository. However, when you look more deeply into how these features are delivered, you’ll see that ERwin does not come close to matching the breadth and depth of capability provided by PowerDesigner. CA ERwin r8.1 Data Modeler On their web site, CA describes ERwin Data Modeler as “an industry-leading data modeling solution that provides a simple, visual interface to manage your complex data environment”. Before the release of r7, the predecessor to r8, ERwin focused completely on the development of tightly-coupled pairs of logical and physical data models. Each ERwin file can contain one logical data model, one physical data model, or one of each. A file that appears to contain two models actually contains a single model with two views, logical and physical. In r7, ERwin introduced the concept of design layers, a simple mechanism that gives hope to those of us who believe that the world of the data modeler is more complex than just matched pairs of logical and physical data models. Look at the next section to find out more about design layers in ERwin. 1 ERwin has several editions and additional components: Data Modeler Core data modeling tool, providing logical and physical data modeling capabilities Standard Edition Data Modeler This combines the Data Modeler Standard Edition with a repository to support workgroup Workgroup Edition collaboration and governance. Metadata Integration An OEM feature built into ERwin, to convert to and from the formats used by other tools, Wizard including most of their major competitors (including PowerDesigner) Data Modeler A read-only version of the Workgroup Edition Navigator Edition Separately licensed component Data Modeler A free version of ERwin. The tool features are restricted, and the largest model it can Community Edition manage is one with 25 entities/tables. Data Modeler Verifies the structural integrity of data models or SQL/DDL code. Validator Separately licensed component In addition, CA can bundle ERwin Data Modeler with OEM products for extracting ERP metadata and for data profiling. Both products are also available on the open market, and can integrate with other data modeling tools, including PowerDesigner. To trial ERwin, just complete a form on the CA web site and the file will be downloaded. The downloaded file is called ‘ERwin.exe’, so be careful if you’ve downloaded previous versions. The Model Validator requires another registration and a separate download. The evaluation license is valid for 14 days from the date of installation. Once the evaluation license has expired, the evaluation version reverts to the Data Modeler Community Edition. If you do need temporary read-only access to models, I suggest you download the trial version of the Data Modeler Navigator Edition of ERwin, which will give you access for 14 days. When my evaluation license expired, a UK reseller provided me with a one month extension. Sybase PowerDesigner 16.0 Sybase PowerDesigner is a single tool, combining several standard modeling techniques (full lifecycle data modeling, data movement modeling, business process modeling, enterprise architecture, and UML). PowerDesigner provides a single working environment, underpinned by a flexible architecture and their industry-renowned Link and Sync capabilities, the key to the comprehensive impact analysis capabilities of PowerDesigner. Downloading and installing the evaluation version of PowerDesigner was simple, and I only had to register once for all available components. If you want to avoid involving DBAs in creating and managing a repository database for your evaluation, you can host the repository database locally, using a specially licensed (free) version of Sybase SQL Anywhere. You can also install the PowerDesigner Web Portal locally, allowing you to quickly create a complete test environment. Some organizations choose to continue using Sybase SQL Anywhere to host their production repository. Once the evaluation license has expired, you may contact the Sybase sales department for extensions. You may also register and download the freely distributable PowerDesigner Viewer software, for read-only access to any of your models on the file system and/or in the repository you built. PowerDesigner is available in several editions, illustrated in Figure 1. Data Architect/DM Core data modeling tool, providing logical and physical data modeling capabilities, and the dedicated XML model Data Architect/RE The core data modeling capabilities, plus the collaborative capabilities made possible by the repository, the web portal, and web-based authoring InformationArchitect Extends Data Architect/RE to provide additional capabilities for managing information architecture Enterprise Architect Extends the InformationArchitect edition to provide additional capabilities for enterprise architects 2 figure 1. PowerDesigner editions DatA modeling ACtivities Overview This section examines the support provided by each tool for the key activities involved in the creation and management of a chain of data models. In a later section, I examine some of the key features a data modeling tool must provide in order to make these activities efficient, effective and productive. The chain of data models is illustrated in Figure 2, using a PowerDesigner Business Process Model. Each box in Figure 2 represents a fundamental data modeling activity. The other icons represent inputs and outputs to and from those activities, most of which are data models. The overall flow of activities represents a top-down modeling approach, though I expect all data modeling tools to provide bi-directional support for each flow, and possibly support flows I haven’t shown, such as generating a Relational PDM directly from a Business Subject Area Model. There are three types of data models in Figure 2: • Subject Area Model — Represents a business need. It is a very broad view, containing only the basic and critical concepts for a given scope. The Business Subject Area Model (BSAM) is a subject area model of a defined portion of the business (not an application). There are other possible types of subject area models, but the modeling principles are the same, so examining support for the BSAM will be sufficient. • Logical Data Model — Represents a detailed business solution, capturing the business requirements without complicating the model with implementation concerns such as software and hardware. • Physical Data Model — Represents a detailed technical solution. It loses some of the exactness of the LDM, but this loss usually comes with gains in performance and usability within a given hardware and software set. In Figure 2, the <<stereotype>> notation identifies the type of PowerDesigner data model that would be created in each case: <<CDM>> Conceptual Data Model <<LDM>> Logical Data Model <<PDM>> Physical Data Model 3 figure 2. Data modeling activities ERwin and PowerDesigner both provide support for all of the activities shown in Figure 2.