INTRODUCTION TO THE SOLUTIONS OF MODEL DRIVEN DATA ENGINEERING

INTRODUCTION TO THE SOLUTIONS OF MODEL DRIVEN DATA ENGINEERING The content of those documents are the exclusive property of REVER. The aim of those document is to provide information and should in no case, be considered as a commitment of REVER. All uses, including referencing a part or the complete document, is entitled to a prior written agreement from REVER. REVER S.A. Belgium ; +32 71 20 71 61 ; http://www.rever.eu REVER’s SOLUTIONS REVER’s documentation is structured around three hierarchical levels as illustrated hereunder: The first level describes REVER’s technologies and explain the tools operation; The second level describes the REVER’s methods to be followed for an optimal use of the tools; The third level describes the REVER’s solutions to meet customer needs. A document from level « I » can reference one or more documents from lower levels: it is highly advised to the reader to read those first for a better understanding of the document. In order to make the explanation as clear as possible, we have used colored schemas. It is recommended to print these documents in color. REVER has a double objective: By separating the constituent elements, to make the reading of REVER documentation easier; To provide to the reader a better understanding of the innovative offering of REVER by permitting a top-down reading (from the solution to technology) and a bottom-up one (from technology to solution). One approach explains how the methods and tools of REVER can achieve solutions appearing, a priori, complex or impossible. The other one can be compared with the approach of a “house builder”: the first level describes the raw materials, the second explains how they will be used to build the “walls”, the third one defines the possible “house architectures”. Marketing 14/05/2008 REVER-SO00 Page 2 / 9 REVER’s SOLUTIONS Table of content 1 2 3 General Description..................................................................................................................4 Benefits of the REVER’s solutions ........................................................................................5 Detailed description ..................................................................................................................6 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Development assistance ..................................................................................................6 Ongoing mastery of the existing applications..............................................................7 Assistance to improve production.................................................................................8 Migration and evolution ..................................................................................................9 Marketing 14/05/2008 REVER-SO00 Page 3 / 9 REVER’s SOLUTIONS 1 General Description The technological solutions proposed by REVER have the objective to provide an ongoing and mastered improvement of the information system of the organizations. Being data centric, the REVER’s solutions take place in four fields, namely: Applications development assistance ; On going mastery of existing applications ; Assistance to improve the results produced for data management ; Migration and evolution of the information system. By its Model Driven Data Engineering approach (MDDE), all solutions provided by REVER are based on data models. Let us remind that, in order to represent information systems, three levels of models are available: The « conceptual or “semantic » model, which is a description of the application’s information system as the business sees it. This model is, by nature, independent from any technology and contains, apart from data description and structures, the data rules. Marketing 14/05/2008 REVER-SO00 Page 4 / 9 REVER’s SOLUTIONS By data rules, we mean the business rules depending directly of the information system such as functional dependencies, values range, data dependencies, … ; The “logical” model which takes into account the general rules of the DBMS’s type used. The logical model is thus depending of a given type of DBMS (flat file, hierarchical database, relational database, …) ; The “physical” model which takes into account the rules induced by a particular DBMS product (VSAM, IMS, ORACLE,…) to implement an information system on a given technological platform. Even if in real IT, the above models are not always explicit, they are however present, their formalization allowing the representation of real data objects, namely: The database : The data structures (entities); The data rules (relations, constraints, …) ; The data : The data values. 2 Benefits of the REVER’s solutions The solutions proposed by REVER to meet user’s needs are briefly described in this document and extensively in others papers describing the solutions of REVER. Using extensively models, the REVER’s solutions have the following benefits: A drastic reduction of project risks due to: A mastery of complexity ; A production of results through iterative refinement ; A reduction in delivery time and costs thanks to : Maximal independence towards technological platforms ; Maximal automation of processing processes; Proven and understandable methods ; Performing and innovating tools ; Unique expertise in the data field. processes of optimization and An improvement of the communication within the organization ; Marketing 14/05/2008 REVER-SO00 Page 5 / 9 REVER’s SOLUTIONS 3 Detailed description 3.1 Development assistance The development of new applications (or rewriting of those), specially for large projects, induces a major challenge for project leaders regarding: A good comprehension of users needs ; A good answer of the business requirements ; The setting of a technical architecture allowing shorter development time and, simultaneously, suited to support adjustments and evolutions when development goes on without major questioning of former achieved work. To answer these needs, the REVER’s tools and methods based on Model Driven Data Engineering, are allowing: Data model construction by direct use of the DB-Main modeling tool DB-MAIN ; Data model construction by automated analysis and control processes meeting specifications; Database construction (data structures and rules) strictly conform to the users requirements ; Business model definition allowing an access to data with business logic: this approach allows isolating, in the programs, the processing layer from the data access one. All these topics are covered in specific REVER’s documents. Marketing 14/05/2008 REVER-SO00 Page 6 / 9 REVER’s SOLUTIONS 3.2 Ongoing mastery of the existing applications One the major interest of Model Driven Engineering (MDE) is to allow a permanent mastery of the existing applications. Indeed, all data structures and/or rules have an impact on the existing system: the difficulty is to evaluate the range of the induced risks. In a MDE approach, the modifications are first executed in the models. They will allow knowing rapidly all consequences of the modifications, notably on programs. The MDE approach allows also the simulation and evaluation of different modification scenarios, and so, the possibility to choose the optimal one in function of the defined criteria’s. In order to offer such possibilities to the IT personal, REVER proposes solutions of: Reconstruction of data models ; Reconstruction of data referential and procedural codes. These solutions are using powerful analysis tools of source code. The results are recorded in the DB-MAIN referential. Starting from there, it is possible to obtain: A general and/or detailed mapping for one, or a set, of applications ; Impact analysis in case of change ; Evaluation of the degree of database complexity as well as the access processes to the data. Last but not least, the power of the REVER’s tools provides efficient assistance for the comprehension of the “behavior” of the programs in some complex situations. All these topics are covered in specific REVER’s documents. Marketing 14/05/2008 REVER-SO00 Page 7 / 9 REVER’s SOLUTIONS 3.3 Assistance to improve production The wide range of user needs regarding data often provides to IT staff unexpected difficulties. The goal of the solutions provided by REVER is to allow answering more quickly to these needs. This improvement in productivity has to go through: The availability of a model defining, clearly and none ambiguously, the different elements. This model, common for all personal concerned, facilitates significantly the definition of the needs. This model is at the disposal of the concerned people under the form of documentation with various contents and formats; The simultaneous analysis of several data models permits the production of a real data dictionary for an applications set, if not for the entire organization ; The data model permits the generation of data extraction program by following the logic of the model instead of physical implementation. This function allows, notably, to extract coherent subsets of data meeting different needs such as : The creation of data sets, anonymized or not, for test of programs ; Extraction of directories to archive or delete ; The delivery of anonymized data for user training; … The models meet also an objective of data quality: from a theoretical point of view, the data have to meet the rules defined in the model. Being able to measure the gaps between the model and the reality of data, being able to understand the origin and the reasons for it, REVER tools provide, with no doubt, an improvement in the quality the information systems. All these topics are covered in specific REVER’s documents. Marketing 14/05/2008 REVER-SO00 Page 8 / 9 REVER’s SOLUTIONS 3.4 Migration and evolution These two words are representing, from a Model Driven Data Engineering point of view, only one concept: the models evolution. This includes: Migration and/or data transfer ; Rewriting of applications ; Ongoing maintenance needing change of data structures and/or data rules ; Migration for transport of databases, as well as migration due to DBMS changes. All these topics are covered in specific REVER’s documents. Marketing 14/05/2008 REVER-SO00 Page 9 / 9