Visible Systems Blog

Updated 4/20/2021

What Are Business Rules and How are They Applied?

Documenting and implementing business rules as metadata is fairly simple.  But in order to implement business rules as a business analyst for widespread use across all business functions, there must be at least three basic characteristics present in all good business rules:

• Explicit expression : Any statement of business rules needs an explicit expression, either graphically or as a formal (logic-based) language. 
• Declarative nature: A business rule is declarative, not procedural. It describes a desirable, possible state that is either required or prohibited.
•  Coherent representation: A single, coherent model for all the kinds of business rules is desirable.

Want to learn more?

Download our comprehensive e-Book now "The Realization that Business Rules are Metadata".

Don't forget to leave your comments, we would like to hear your opinion! We'd like to see what you have to add. 

We make decisions every day. But do we trust the data that we rely on to make these decisions? Can we even find the data and when we do is it timely enough for us to use it ?

We should expect reliable, timely and trusted data. As an Operations Manager,  you want to immediately see the data that matters most to us when it matters most so we can make timely decisions – whether that be professionally or personally. Perhaps it's about conducting many searches that could be very different from each other or perhaps it means drilling down to a point where we see what wasn't so obvious to us. What would it take to accomplish this? Here are a few critical success factors we feel are relevant. We'd like to see what you consider to be important.

Updated on 4/20/2021

Businesses are focusing their efforts on becoming more data driven. Research done by the McKinsey Global Institute indicate that data driven organizations are 23 times more likely to acquire customers, six times as likely to retain those customers, and 19 times as likely to be profitable as a result. Adi Gaskell, Forbes

In the past few years, the data steward position has become a necessity for businesses. With the growing increase of technology, it is crucial for businesses to have the right infrastructure to manage, protect, and store vast amounts of data.

One critical success factor is to think about data in terms of its life cycle. What life cycle? Well, let's think about a data life cycle as having the following:

1. Collection
2. Storage
3. Analysis
4. Transfer
5. Retention

We'd be interested in hearing from you about what your data life cycle looks like and how it compares. Additionally, if you are interested in learning more about the data life cycle and how to manage sensitive data throughout its life cycle then please provide us with the information below. We will send you our E-Book on "Personal and Sensitive Data Governance and Security".

Updated on 4/20/2021

To be a successful data analyst, you don't need to learn a programming language.

1. Create a data analysis plan.

Does the thought of data analysis overwhelm you? If so, you are not alone. 62% of marketers feel overwhelmed by the amount of data that they have, showing that this is a common problem. One solution to this problem is to create a data analysis plan. As stated in A Structured Approach to Data Analysis, a data analysis plan can help you to organize your thoughts on how you will conduct your analysis.

2. Get a handle on change and how it impacts your business.

In today's society, change occurs at a rapid pace. Typically, mid- to large-sized organization manage up to 20 different data
sources; many manage hundreds (or thousands) of sources.
Data catalogs are one way to help manage an increasingly complex data landscape. Data catalogs typically contain metadata about your business and its data.

We'd like to hear from you about your experiences by adding one or more points to what we have here.

Please provide us with your input below and we will send you our E-Book "Visible Self Service Data Discovery".

See how Visible Systems Corporation has integrated the data catalog with its powerful repository features to provide a unique data discovery experience.

Updated on 4/20/2021

Developing a successful business strategy must at the very least include involvement from all users on the team, having a good enterprise architecture and implementing data technology...but only after business rules are well understood.

Business rules take into account the rules about your data. So how are we able to get our arms around these business rules? Well, let's first see about developing models to understand the data that we need.

Data modeling is essential when creating a strategy for your business. Data modeling enables you to better understand the data of your business which translates into knowing what strategy will reach your goals. This is a great Blog that talks more about business strategy and why it must be aligned with your data strategy. 

Be sure to acknowledge your challenges on formulating a business strategy by letting us know here.  Acknowledging the extent of your challenge is the first step towards devising a plan of action. Your challenge may be an easy fix or it may be a more than difficult fix – what some may call "wicked."  Let us know by providing the information below and we'll respond to you with what will hopefully be an easy fix. You have nothing to lose. Additionally, we will send you a copy of our E-Book, "Critical Success Factors for Business Intelligence - The Creation of Information Symmetry".

 

 

Below is an interesting research paper I found on the web on systems analysis and design by Ranida Harris of Indiana University Southeast that I think is worth reading. 

From the Abstract: Educators know the value of having a real world project for their Systems Analysis and Design courses. The author concludes that based on both the quality of work and student comments, that groups felt pressure to work harder, enjoyed the competition, and ultimately produced higher quality projects.  Teaching a systems analysis and design class can be challenging,  and many instructors have shown the efficacy in using a real world semester project.  This paper looks at delivering a systems analysis and design class differently. Rather than rely on student creating an individual project, they are teamed and compete, similar to an organization soliciting bids. Based on both the quality of work and student comments, revealed that groups felt pressure to work harder, enjoyed the competition, and ultimately produced higher quality projects. 

A Systems Analysis and Design Semester Project, click here to download

I thought I would share the link to this paper with you as it might add value to your course.

The Visible Analyst University Edition is a fully multi-user software tool compatible with any systems analysis and design course. With this tool project groups work together on an integrated projects. Even better, with this tool you can create a course that defines all of the lessons of phases of your semester project. If you are interested in learning more about the multi-user Visible Analyst University Edition, click here.

If you'd like to claim your FREE license to Visible Analyst, click here.

Entity Relationship Modeling (ERD)

Click here to see this video

This lesson covers the basics of creating an entity relationship diagram and was created by Prof. Rhonda Richards.

In Visible Analyst’s terminology, a diagram containing a picture of all or a subset of your data is called a view. Each view can show an arbitrarily large or small part of your data model. You can show multiple views of your data model by including different combinations of entities and relationships on various diagrams. However, the entire data model, including the data elements composing each entity, is retained in the repository and can be accessed by creating a global view of the data model. This feature is explained in Lesson 7.

For more details on this lesson, please see pages 93-106 of the Visible Analyst Tutorial.

Let us know if you found this video useful!

This lesson was developed by Prof. Rhonda Richards can be found on pages 63-78.

Click here for Lesson 5

Lesson 5 covers Diagramming and Repository basics.

The following topics are covered in this video:

1. CREATING A NEW PROJECT, page 63

2. CREATING A NEW DIAGRAM, page 66

3. EDITING A DIAGRAM, page 67

4. STYLIZING A SYMBOL, page 69

5. MOVING, CUTTING, AND PASTING A SYMBOL, page 70

6. ADDING LINES TO A DIAGRAM, page 71

7. SELECTING AND ADJUSTING LINES, page 72

8. ADDING CAPTION TEXT TO A DIAGRAM, page 73

9. OTHER DIAGRAMMING FUNCTIONS, page 75

10. DISPLAYING AND HIDING SYMBOL LABELS, page 78

11. CLOSING A DIAGRAM, page 77

 Let us know what you think!