Design Challenge Collection

Sharpen your modeling skills by tackling these puzzles

 

A great way to sharpen our analysis and modeling skills is to continuously address real-world scenarios. A modeling scenario along with suggested solutions will appear each month in DM Review magazine. The scenario is emailed to more than 2,500 modelers up to the challenge. Many of the responses, including my own, are then consolidated into this column. If you would like to become a design challenger and have the opportunity to submit modeling solutions, please add your email address below.

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1 Having the same primary key in two or more logical entities Scenario Response
2 Create a logical data model? Scenario Response
3 Convincing project teams of the need to normalize Scenario Response
4 Techniques in reviewing a data model Scenario Response
5 Technical questions asked during a job interview for a data-related position Scenario Response
6 Taming the wild west modeler Scenario Response
7 We live in a world of classifications Scenario Response
8 Define a "Thing" Scenario Response
9 A tough rule Scenario Response
10 A Permission Puzzle Scenario Response
11 A Recursive Riddle Scenario Response
12 Logical Data Modeling in practice Scenario Response
13 Enterprise Data Model ROI Scenario Response
14 The Person Identifier Scenario Response
15 Medals for Model Layout Scenario Response
16 To surrogate key or not to surrogate key, that is the question Scenario Response
17 Global Address Scenario Response
18 Dimensional logical? Scenario Response
19 Aggregation, summarization, and abstraction demystified Scenario Response
20 Decoding codes Scenario Response
21 Role of the data architect Scenario Response
22 Getting physical with subtypes Scenario Response
23 Creative hierarchy Scenario Response
24 Definition Differences Scenario Response
25 Super Star Scenario Response
26 Rules on rules Scenario Response
27 Data Dictionary, are you out there? Scenario Response
28 Null AK? Scenario Response
29 Broken shells Scenario Response
30 Recursive fact table? Scenario Response
31 A Dimensional EDM Scenario Response
32 Thinking Data Scenario Response
33 Timeless Dimensional Model Scenario Response
34 Subtype key Scenario Response
35 Customer Id Scenario Response
36 Ontology and Taxonomy Scenario Response
37 Product Availability Scenario Response
38 The Spam Model Scenario Coming soon!
39 Canonical Data Model Defined Scenario Coming soon!
40 Is GUID good? Scenario Coming soon!