Does this sound familiar? Management calls and says “Can you tell me if we drop this column on the Customer table, what will happen?”. This open ended question strikes fear into thousands of analysts, dbas and developers every year. Maybe someone from upper management decides you’re going to convert all your applications to Java to simplify the support and technology requirements of the organization. Can you tell them the real world cost and consequences of this change? For most people the answer is no. Documentation regarding the data, the systems and applications is so disconnected throughout the organization, it’s virtually impossible to identify the complete view. Evaluating the consequences to minor and major changes is a massive undertaking since some of your documentation (if you have any at all) is in Visio, some is in MS Word and the rest is spread out between the tool of choice in each department.
Meet PowerDesigner, affectionately known as PD. PD utilizes a common user interface and link and sync technology to connect all the metadata into a complete view. The goal here is to streamline the process and documentation of data, application development and enterprise architects while connecting all components together so you can answer these important impact questions.
You say “Great!” and launch this new tool. Your first reaction is probably “Wow, what does all this mean and how/why would I use all these different features?”. First take a deep breath. PowerDesigner is designed to make your job easier. If you think it’s making your life harder, then you need a little training to focus on the items you will use and more importantly, how to get the tool to work for you to reuse objects between modelers and minimize repeated tasks.
PowerDesigner is an enterprise wide modeling tool that supports modeling features for the various teams including business analysts, developers, data architects and enterprise architects. How do you find what you need know to do your job?
That’s where we come in. The PowerDesigner education team will help you answer those questions. We will help you identify the training that best fits your business goals. First, you need to answer these initial questions.
1) What are your corporate goals for using PowerDesigner?
Is your goal to use the tool for complete enterprise architecture or are your goals more specific such as creating a master data management program? Has your team made these decisions yet?
2) What are your personal goals for using PowerDesigner?
Are you a business analyst, data architect, enterprise architect, application developer?
Will you be an end user of PowerDesigner or will you also be administering the implementation of PowerDesigner?
Once you’ve answered the above questions, you can find the curriculum that’s just right for you. With PowerDesigner, curriculum paths are defined by job description: data architects, business analyst, developers, and enterprise architects or administrators.
For Data Architects, we have a fast paced 4 day class, Data Modeling with PowerDesigner(DEV355) . This class is for experienced data modelers, looking to understand how to implement conceptual, logical and physical data models in PowerDesigner. You will learn how to generate SQL, reverse engineer a database and communicate your data model to the rest of your team using HTML reports and/or the PowerDesigner Portal. If you need design data structures, be able to evaluate the cost of changing a table, determine what tables are impacted, or how/if the data warehouse is impacted, then this class is for you.
For the business analysts, we have a 3 day course, Business Process Modeling with PowerDesigner (DEV356) where you will build swimlane diagrams, decompose processes, discuss the various business modeling notations including options such as BPM. And of course teach you how to distribute your models via the PowerDesigner Portal and/or through the PD report features. If you want to connect your processes to the data, define CRUD, understand the requirements that drive your processes, then this is the class for you.
For the application architects and developers, we have a 2 day course, Object Oriented Modeling with PowerDesigner(DEV351), where you will design applications using UML. You will learn to define class diagrams, state chart diagrams, component diagrams and more. You will generate code for languages like Jave, C#, and .net as well as reverse engineer application files. You can use the OOM to generate Physical Data models, create reports to communicate your application design to other users. If you need to understand how use cases, components and classes are connected, what data they are related to and the over application design, then this is the class for you.
For the Enterprise Architect, we offer a 2 day class, Modeling for Enterprise Architecture with PowerDesigner (DEV621).This class is designed for users with at least a little PowerDesigner experience. You will learn to create Enterprise Architecture models including Business Communication Diagrams, Application and System diagrams, network diagrams and more. If you need to understand which systems and applications are related, what is the impacted when taking a server offline or you lose communication with a specific building, then this is the class for you.
For the PowerDesigner administrator, we offer a 3 day class, Advanced Modeling with PowerDesigner (DEV523). This class teaches you to customize PowerDesigner so PowerDesigner fits your business instead of you trying to change your business to fit PowerDesigner. Learn how to customize the interface, automate repeated tasks using basic scripting and implement and deploy standards to your team. If it’s your job to determine the best way to use PowerDesigner, structure the Repository and support PowerDesigner, then this class is for you.
Keep an eye out for the latest updates to the classes. We are constantly updating our offerings to include new features, versions and courses.
What are the aspects of PowerDesigner do you need in your environment? If the current curriculum doesn't satisfy all of your training requirements, we’ll work with you to find a solution through customized training, consulting and potentially new courses.
