AGILE DATA MODELING 1

AGILE DATA MODELING

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AGILE DATA MODELING

Data modeling is the process of visually representing the data structures and business rule
requirements of a software system. It is used by system developers to model the information
requirements of a system. Agile data modeling is a new methodology of developing data models in a
evolutionary and collaborative way. Ambler (1981) states that the Agile modeling methodology is
method for effectively modeling modern software systems.

System developers use data models to understand the information requirements of a system.
They engage with stakeholders and end users to build a comprehensive model of the data structures and
business rules necessary to met the information needs of the end user. Data models are also used as a
means of communicating important aspects of a system’s design. The data modeling process is a
fundamental part of the entire system development process.

System engineering process (Mallikaarachchi. V, n.d).

There are several ways of modeling the information artifacts of a business system. Along with
Agile methodology another popular data modeling methodology is the Rational Unified Process (RUP).
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According to Castilla (2014) RUP is a methodology that incorporates many of best practices in
software development. It is an approach that is use-case driven, and architecture centric.

Common to traditional ways of modeling systems like the RUP, is the phase where the system
developer builds the complete data model of all the business facts and processes of a system. Once the
data model has been thoroughly and accurately developed the developer will proceed to implement the
software artifacts of the system. Developing an accurate and complete data models is a detailed and
time consuming process that involves multiple and lengthy interactions with the stakeholders and end
users. This in turn leads to an increase in the time it takes to get a working system.

Agile data modeling is a collaborative and iterative process of modeling and building systems.
Compared to RUP way of developing data models and building systems, Agile data modeling takes a
lightweight, repetitive and adaptive approach to developing systems. In agile modeling the process of
modeling business information systems is broken up into short cycles. Each cycles results in a working
system that is immediately pushed to the end user.

A key aspect of Agile data modeling is that it promotes the concept of continuous delivery (CD) of
software. Continuous Delivery is a set of processes and practices that enables faster delivery of high-
quality functionality and sets up a rapid and effective feedback loop between system developers and
end users (XebiaLabs, p. 6).

The agile modeling methodology is based on the following values (Nemeth, 2006, p. 3) :

1. Communications.

2. Simplicity.

3. Feedback

4. Courage

5. Humility

An example of the successfully application of agile modeling methodology in industry is the

case of NASA (National Aeronautical and Space Administration) development of it’s Airspace and
Traffic Operations Simulation (ATOS) system. Agile methodologies have
proved to be successful in NASA's simulation environment and will be continuously implemented and
modified into the future (Mielke, 2008, p. 98).
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Agile modeling best practices (Mallikaarachchi. V)

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References
Agile Modeling: A Brief Overview. Ambler. S.A (1981).
https://cs.emis.de/LNI/Proceedings/Proceedings07/AgilModel_aBrief_1.pdf
Castilla, D. A Hybrid Approach Using RUP and Scrum as aSoftware Development Strategy (2014)
https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1554&context=etd

Mallikaarachchi. V (n.d)

https://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/analysis/Fall2010Papers/varuni/
Mielke, D. Using Agile Software Development Practices in a Research
Oriented Distributed Simulation Oriented Distributed Simulation (2008)
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=msve_etds
XebiaLabs (n.d)
http://athena.ecs.csus.edu/~buckley/CSc233/it-managers-guide-continuous-delivery.pdf
Nemeth, A & Borisov, V. Agile Modelling in Software Engineering (2006)
http://wwwmayr.in.tum.de/konferenzen/Jass06/courses/3/presentations/AgileModeling.pdf