The Data Model Resource Book, Vol. 2: A Library of Data Models for Specific Industries

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Why Is There a Need for This Book?

When organizations develop custom information systems or strive to integrate their existing systems, they spend a significant amount of time and effort developing data models. Most of the time, organizations start from scratch when developing these data models because there are not many available sources for common data models that can be reused.

A tremendous amount of time and money could be saved by using “templates” or, to coin a phrase, “Universal Data Models” providing common data structures that are applicable across many business applications and industries.

The first book, The Data Model Resource Book: Volume 1, provided some Universal Data Model templates for common subject data areas that apply generally to most businesses. The book offered data structures to model people, organizations, products, orders, shipments, invoicing, work effort management, accounting, budgeting, and human resources. This represents a significant tool for developers to use to save time and money.

Many people have asked, why not extend the concept of the first edition of The Data Model Resource Book to provide models for specific industries? While most people find the first book very useful, there is still more work in modifying the models to work for specific industries. Organizations want to have reusable data models for their own industry, such as for financial services firms, manufacturers, travel-related enterprises, health care organizations, ...