This book provides the business or IT professional with a practical working knowledge of data modelling concepts and best practices, along with how to apply these principles with ER/Studio DA. You will build many ER/Studio DA data models along the way, applying best practices to master these ten objectives: You will know why a data model is needed and which ER/Studio DA models are the most appropriate for each situation; You will be able to read a data model of any size and complexity with the same confidence as reading a book; You will know how to apply all the key features of ER/Studio DA; You will be able to build relational and dimensional conceptual, logical, and physical data models in ER/Studio DA; You will be able to apply techniques such as indexing, transforms, and forward engineering to turn a logical data model into an efficient physical design; You will improve data model quality and impact analysis results by leveraging ER/Studio DA's lineage functionality and compare/merge utility; You will achieve enterprise architecture through ER/Studio DA's repository and portal functionality; You will be able to apply ER/Studio DA's data dictionary features; You will learn ways of sharing the data model through reporting and through exporting the model in a variety of formats; You will leverage ER/Studio DA's naming functionality to improve naming consistency. This book contains four sections: Section I introduces data modelling and the ER/Studio DA landscape. Learn why data modelling is so critical to software development and even more importantly, why data modelling is so critical to understanding the business. You will also learn about the ER/Studio DA environment. By the end of this section, you will have created and saved your first data model in ER/Studio DA and be ready to start modelling in Section II. Section II explains all of the symbols and text on a data model, including entities, attributes, relationships, domains, and keys. By the time you finish this section, you will be able to ‘read' a data model of any size or complexity, and create a complete data model in ER/Studio DA. Section III explores the three different levels of models: conceptual, logical, and physical. A conceptual data model (CDM) represents a business need within a defined scope. The logical data model (LDM) represents a detailed business solution, capturing the business requirements without complicating the model with implementation concerns such as software and hardware. The physical data model (PDM) represents a detailed technical solution. The PDM is the logical data model compromised often to improve performance or usability. The PDM makes up for deficiencies in our technology. By the end of this section you will be able to create conceptual, logical, and physical data models in ER/Studio DA. Section IV discusses additional features of ER/Studio DA. These features include data dictionary, data lineage, automating tasks, repository and portal, exporting and reporting, naming standards, and compare and merge functionality.