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Business-oriented Data Modelling Masterclass

Balancing Engagement, Agility, and Complexity

Date Price Contact
November 3-5, 2025 € 2150 (ex. VAT) seminars@adeptevents.nl
+31 (0)172 742680
Time Location Downloads
9:00 - 17:00 Van der Valk Hotel, Utrecht
  • Data Modelling Masterclass.pdf
  • Data Modelling Masterclass_English.pdf
Next EditionTYPELanguage
June 1-3, 2026 Face-to-Face English spoken
Date Price
November 3-5, 2025 € 2150 (ex. VAT)
Downloads Time
  • Data Modelling Masterclass.pdf
  • Data Modelling Masterclass_English.pdf
9:00 - 17:00
Location Contact
Van der Valk Hotel, Utrecht seminars@adeptevents.nl
+31 (0)172 742680
Next Edition
June 1-3, 2026
TYPE
Face-to-Face
Date
November 3-5, 2025
Price
€ 2150 (ex. VAT)
Downloads
  • Data Modelling Masterclass.pdf
  • Data Modelling Masterclass_English.pdf
Time
9:00 - 17:00
Location
Van der Valk Hotel, Utrecht
Contact
seminars@adeptevents.nl
+31 (0)172 742680
Next Edition
June 1-3, 2026
TYPE
Face-to-Face
EARLY BIRD
The Early Bird rate of € 1.935,00, VAT excluded, expires (*) on 4 October 2025. Register now and receive discount!
REGISTER
  • Overview
  • Course description
  • Registration fee
  • Speakers
  • Venue

Business-oriented Data Modelling Masterclass

Balancing Engagement, Agility, and Complexity

This three-day interactive workshop combines the core content from two popular data modelling offerings by Alec Sharp – Business Oriented Data Modelling and Advanced Data Modelling. Suitable for both new and experienced modellers, this course first explores unique techniques for rapidly developing high-quality models while maintaining the involvement of business professionals. It then provides hands-on practice with skills in more challenging topics – generalisation, recursion, subtyping, modelling time and history, presenting models to non-technical groups, the connection between E-R modelling and dimensional modelling, and many more. In all cases, the underlying philosophy is that a data model is a description of a business, not of a database.

Three main themes are explored in a very practical way:
1. The foundations of data modelling – what a data model really is, and maximising its relevance
2. The human side of data modelling – improving communication skills and engaging the business
3. The complex side of data modelling – getting better at modelling difficult situations

The workshop

After introducing entity-relationship modelling from a non-technical perspective, the basic components of a data model are thoroughly covered – entities, relationships, attributes, and rules. Practical tips, quality checklists, and warnings of common pitfalls are also shared. Through hands-on work, the workshop demonstrates why there is a global surge of interest in data modelling, especially conceptual data modelling or “concept modelling.” It also show how a concept model can be a great platform on which to develop application requirements (use cases and services) and to identify business processes.
A repeatable method for developing a data model is emphasised.

The first day of the workshop gets both new and experienced modellers to the same baseline on terminology, conventions, and the unique, business-friendly approaches this course provides. For the next two days, the course moves on to more advanced situations, such as the enforcement of complex business rules, handling recurring patterns, satisfying regulatory requirements to model time and history, capturing complex changes and corrections, dealing with existing databases or packaged applications, and integrating with dimensional modelling.

The Business-Oriented Data Modelling workshop by Alec Sharp is generally evaluated by the attendees with an overall rating of 9 or better.

Learning objectives

On workshop completion, participants will be able to:

  • Apply a variety of techniques that support the active participation and engagement of business professionals and subject matter experts
  • Use entity-relationship modelling to depict facts and rules about business entities at different levels of detail, including conceptual (overview) and logical (detailed) models
  • Learn an easy, language-oriented approach to initiating development of a data model
  • Recognise the four basic patterns in data modelling, and when to use them
  • Effectively use definitions and assertions (“rules”) as part of data modelling
  • Use an intuitive approach to data normalisation within an entity-relationship model
  • Apply various techniques for discovering and meeting additional requirements
  • Read a data model, and communicate with specialists using the appropriate terminology
  • Understand “the four Ds of data modelling” – definition, dependency, demonstration, and detail
  • Be able to implement lists, trees, and networks with recursive relationships
  • Know how and when to use supertypes/subtypes (generalisation/specialisation) vs. roles vs. both
  • Combine subtyping and recursion, as appropriate, to model difficult rules
  • Recognise the “category vs. types vs. instances” problem, and model reference data properly
  • Model “vectors” (attibutes that repeat a fixed number of times) properly – entity or attribute?
  • Use multi-way associations, associations of associations, and relationship constraints to handle complex rules
  • Handle circular relationships and cyclic dependencies properly with advanced normal forms
  • Model history, corrections, and time-dependent business rules with “temporal data models”
  • Understand the connection between analytic data structures (star schema or dimensional models) and ER models
  • Rapidly develop a first-cut dimensional model from a well-structured ER model
  • Prepare and deliver a data model review presentation.

Prerequisites

None, although an understanding of information systems concepts may be helpful.

Who is it for?

Roles that are currently benefitting from this workshop include:

  • Specialist data modellers, data architects, data analysts, and DBAs who wish to hone their skills.
  • Business analysts, business architects, enterprise architects, and application architects
  • Application / solution developers (especially on Agile teams)
  • Business professionals, Subject Matter Experts, and Project / Programme Managers involved in the analysis, design, and development (or selection and configuration) of a system.
  • BI (Business Intelligence) professionals, DW (Data Warehouse) professionals, big data specialists, data scientists, analytics specialists, and data lake implementers.

DAMA-I_logo_blackDiscount for DAMA members

Members of the DAMA NL Dutch chapter as well as Belux or International chapter are eligible for ten percent discount.

 

At the top of this page you can download the PDF brochure of this workshop.

 

Alec Sharp

Founder
Clariteq Systems Consulting
Alec Sharp, a senior consultant and acclaimed teacher with Clariteq Systems Consulting, has deep expertise in a rare combination of fields – business analysis and requirements specification, data modelling, strategy development, facilitation, and, of course, business process modelling, analysis and design.

Read more

Van der Valk Hotel Utrecht
Winthontlaan 4-6
3526 KV Utrecht
Telefoon 030 8000 800

The hotel is very well accessible by public transport. From busstop ‘Kanaleneiland Zuid’ it is only a three-minute walk. You can take buses 63, 65, 66, 74 and 77 from Utrecht Central Station and you also take the tram line 20 or 21 from the train station and get off at stop ‘Kanaleneiland’. Please consult www.9292.nl (door-to-door journey planner, also available in English) or call 0900-9292 (travel advice by phone, € 0.70 p/m).

Van der Valk Hotel Utrecht is also located next to the highway A12, exit 17 (Utrecht / Jaarbeurs / Kanaleneiland).

Although the hotel has a large parking garage, we cannot guarantee parking spots. We therefore advise you to go by public transport.

For those who would like to arrive the day before, there is the possibility of staying at the Van der Valk Hotel Utrecht. However, the hotel does not provide special discounts for attendees of events. Therefore, when interested in an overnight stay, please consult Van der Valk directly to make a reservation.

More information about the hotel and the location can be found on their website www.vandervalkhotelutrecht.nl.

The course starts at 09.30 am and ends at 5 pm. Registration commences at 08.30 am.

[IF ONLINE FORMAT] We will send the course materials and meeting instructions well in advance as well as the invitation with hyperlink to join us online. The workshop will start at 13:30 and lasts until 17:00 CET. The online meeting will be available at least one half hour earlier so please log in timely in order to check your sound and video settings beforehand.

 

Course Topics

Essentials of Data Modelling

  • What really is a data model or concept model?
  • Essential components – entities, relationships, attributes, and rules
  • Hands-on case study – how data modelling resolved business issues, and supported other business analysis techniques
  • Guidelines for comprehension – how to lay out Entity-Relationship Diagrams (“ERDs”)
  • The narrative parts of a data model – definitions and assertions
  • Group exercise – getting started on a data model, then refining it
  • Common misconceptions about data models and data modelling
  • The real purpose of a data model
  • Contextual, Conceptual, and Logical Data Models – purpose, audience, definition, and examples
  • Overview of a three-phase methodology for developing a data model

Establishing the initial conceptual data model

  • Top down vs. bottom up approaches to beginning a data model – when is each appropriate?
  • A bottom-up approach focusing on collecting and analyzing terminology
  • A structure for sorting terms and discovering entities
  • Exercise – developing an initial conceptual data model
  • Entities – what they are and are not
  • Guidelines for naming and defining entities
  • Three questions to help you quickly develop clear, useful entity definitions
  • Exercise – identifying flawed entities
  • Six criteria that entities must satisfy, and four common errors in identifying entities
  • Identifying relationships
  • Fundamental vs. irrelevant or transitive relationships
  • Good and bad relationship names
  • Multiplicity or cardinality – 1:1, 1:M, and M:M relationships, and useful facts about each
  • Common errors and special cases – recursive, multiple, and supertype-subtype relationships
  • Attributes – guidelines and types
  • Attributes in conceptual models vs. logical models

Developing the initial logical data model by adding rigor, structure, and detail

  • Transition to the logical model – shifting the focus from entities to attributes
  • Multi-valued, redundant, and constrained attributes, with simple patterns for dealing with each
  • An understandable guide to normalisation – first, second, and third normal forms
  • Higher order (fourth and fifth) and Boyce-Codd normal forms
  • Exercise – developing the initial logical data model
  • Four types of entities – kernel, characteristic, associative, and reference
  • Guidelines and patterns for dealing with each type of entity
  • How to draw your E-R Diagram for maximum readability and correctness
  • Optional and mandatory relationships
  • Considering time and history when looking at relationships
  • Typical attribute documentation
  • A common source of confusion and disagreement – primary keys
  • What primary keys are, what they’re really for, and three essential criteria
  • The four Ds of data modelling – definition, dependency, detail, and demonstration
  • E-R Diagramming – symbol sets and their problems, rules for readability and comprehension

Correctly handling attributes

  • Granularity – dealing with non-atomic and semantically overloaded attributes
  • Dealing with reference data and the “types vs. instances” problem
  • Three attributes that always need a qualifier
  • Vector modelling – entity or attribute?

Interesting structures – generalisation, recursion, and the two together

  • Generalisation (subtyping) – when to use it, and when not to
  • Generalisation with and without specification
  • Guidelines for using recursive relationships
  • Generalisation and recursion working hand-in-hand as a cure for literalism
  • Recognizing lists, trees, and networks, and modelling them with recursive relationships
  • Modelling difficult rules by combining generalisation (subtyping) and recursion
  • Staying clear on generalisation vs. roles, states, and aggregation

Modelling time, history, and time-dependent business rules

  • Historical vs. audit data, and when to show them on a data model
  • Thanks, Sarbanes-Oxley! Why we need “as-of reporting” and how to model data corrections
  • “Do you need history?” – how to tell when your client is misleading you
  • Modelling time – special considerations for recording past, present, and future values
  • Four variations on capturing history in a data model
  • Seven questions you should always ask when a date range appears

Modelling rules on relationships and associations

  • Using multi-way associations to handle complex rules
  • “Use your words” – how assertions, scenarios, and other techniques will improve your modelling
  • Associative entities – circular relationships, shared parentage, and other issues
  • Alternatives for modelling constraints across relationships
  • Advanced normal forms – how to quickly recognize potential 4NF and 5NF issues
  • A simpler view – why the five normal forms could be reduced to three

Preparing and delivering a data model review presentation

  • Context – your audience, and why the model matters to them
  • It’s a story, not a data model! Building a storyboard
  • Five key techniques for presenting data models or other technical subjects
  • The mechanics of the data model review presentation
  • A demonstration

Bridging the “E-R vs. Dimensional” divide – the world’s shortest course on dimensional modelling

  • The perils of dimensional modelling without understanding the underlying E-R model
  • Spotting facts and dimensions – the relationship between dimensional models and E-R models
  • Saving time – building a first-cut dimensional model from an ER model

Taking part in this hands-on workshop will only cost € 1935 when registering 30 days beforehand and € 2150 per person after the Early Bird period expires (excl. 21% Dutch VAT). This also covers documentation, coffee and lunch.

Members of DAMA NL or Intl. are eligible for 5 percent discount on the registration fee.

In completing your registration form you declare that you agree with our Terms and Conditions.

*) All pricing is VAT-excluded and EU VAT regulation stipulates that if you attend an event on-premise in The Netherlands, we are required to include local VAT. In case of discrepancy in registration fee between the website and the PDF brochure, the information on this page of the website always prevails.

Extra discounts
Discounts are available for group bookings of two or more delegates representing the same organization made at the same time. Ten percent off for the second and third delegate and fifteen percent off for all delegates when registering four or more delegates (all delegates must be listed on the same invoice).
This cannot be used in conjunction with other discounts.

Payment
Full payment is due prior to the event. An invoice will be sent to you containing our full bank details including BIC and IBAN. Your payment should always include the invoice number as well as the name of your company and the delegate name.
Payment by credit card is also available. Please mention this in the Comment-field upon registration and find further instructions for credit card payment on our customer service page.

testimonials

Pavel Dimitrov Lazarov Governance, Risk & Compliance Auditor, Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A (Generali Group)

“Course that I will recommend to my colleagues and boss. Nice method and great clarity from great teacher!”

Marc Ploemen Solution Architect, De Volksbank

“Good masterclass with valuable examples which I directly can use in my work.”

Ram Kumar Anantharaman Data Architect, FMO N.V.

“Business Data Modelling Course by Alec was informative and enjoyable. Alec provides a practical guidelines & best practices for representing business in terms of Conceptual Data Model and Logical Data Model.”

Nick Bresseleers DevOps Engineer, ING

“Excellent introduction to data modeling. Alec Sharp is a fantastic trainer who can explain the course material in a way that everyone can understand. The training course introduces the basics of data modeling and evolves towards some more advanced data modeling topics near the end.”

Charles van den Reekd BA, DLL

“Focus on the business purpose with real examples made by an excellent speaker with actual experience.”

Jeroen Meester Business Analyst, Belastingdienst

“Great workshop! Alec is an expert and knows how to teach in an easy and clear way.”

Dick de Boer Metadata specialist, APG

“Very active, well explained and presented course about Data Modelling!”

Remco Piels Product Owner, ING Bank

“The workshop gave an excellent view on data modelling and the speaker contains a lot of knowledge supported by real examples.”

Maurice Kusters Data Scientist, APG

“A great way of working is introduced that makes sure the business is never left out of data modelling. Alec Sharp is a great teacher.”

Ana Ferro Cantanhede Senior Dev. Engineer, ING Bank

“Very complete data modelling course, since the basic concepts to more advanced topics. A lot of the content have practical immediate application.”

Andries Kooijman Teacher, Hogeschool Inholland

“Excellent training and trainer which I would highly recommend when you have to have a more indepth knowledge about data modelling.”

Praveen Ravichandran Data Analyst, ING Bank

“Alec explained interesting and complex concepts of data modelling in a very interactive and indulging way that it is very hard to forget them :-).”

Robbert Kok Data Analyst, Volksbank

“Most interactive workshop I ever experienced.”

Ingrid Uitendaal Data Analyst, ING

“Will never forget this, especially the moves.”

Bram Laumans Data Engineer, Rabobank

“Very clear course from an experienced speaker with many useful examples.”

Marleen Verboven Data Steward, Dela

“Great course, enjoyed it a lot and learned even more!”

Maarten Op de Beeck Data Steward, Dela Belgium

“The course had a very high and immediate Return on Time Invested.”

Mascha Ackerstaff Data Modeling Lead, ASML

“Very practical approach to data modeling and very business oriented. It was a great pleasure listening to Alec.”

Pascal Ghijsen Head of portfolio analytics, APG Asset Management

“Using business language to model your business data is an absolute plus in this course. Alec is very energetic & knowledgeable.”

Pavel Dimitrov Lazarov Governance, Risk & Compliance Auditor, Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A (Generali Group)

“Course that I will recommend to my colleagues and boss. Nice method and great clarity from great teacher!”

Marc Ploemen Solution Architect, De Volksbank

“Good masterclass with valuable examples which I directly can use in my work.”

Ram Kumar Anantharaman Data Architect, FMO N.V.

“Business Data Modelling Course by Alec was informative and enjoyable. Alec provides a practical guidelines & best practices for representing business in terms of Conceptual Data Model and Logical Data Model.”

Nick Bresseleers DevOps Engineer, ING

“Excellent introduction to data modeling. Alec Sharp is a fantastic trainer who can explain the course material in a way that everyone can understand. The training course introduces the basics of data modeling and evolves towards some more advanced data modeling topics near the end.”

Charles van den Reekd BA, DLL

“Focus on the business purpose with real examples made by an excellent speaker with actual experience.”

Jeroen Meester Business Analyst, Belastingdienst

“Great workshop! Alec is an expert and knows how to teach in an easy and clear way.”

Dick de Boer Metadata specialist, APG

“Very active, well explained and presented course about Data Modelling!”

Remco Piels Product Owner, ING Bank

“The workshop gave an excellent view on data modelling and the speaker contains a lot of knowledge supported by real examples.”

Maurice Kusters Data Scientist, APG

“A great way of working is introduced that makes sure the business is never left out of data modelling. Alec Sharp is a great teacher.”

Ana Ferro Cantanhede Senior Dev. Engineer, ING Bank

“Very complete data modelling course, since the basic concepts to more advanced topics. A lot of the content have practical immediate application.”

Andries Kooijman Teacher, Hogeschool Inholland

“Excellent training and trainer which I would highly recommend when you have to have a more indepth knowledge about data modelling.”

Praveen Ravichandran Data Analyst, ING Bank

“Alec explained interesting and complex concepts of data modelling in a very interactive and indulging way that it is very hard to forget them :-).”

Robbert Kok Data Analyst, Volksbank

“Most interactive workshop I ever experienced.”

Ingrid Uitendaal Data Analyst, ING

“Will never forget this, especially the moves.”

Bram Laumans Data Engineer, Rabobank

“Very clear course from an experienced speaker with many useful examples.”

Marleen Verboven Data Steward, Dela

“Great course, enjoyed it a lot and learned even more!”

Maarten Op de Beeck Data Steward, Dela Belgium

“The course had a very high and immediate Return on Time Invested.”

Mascha Ackerstaff Data Modeling Lead, ASML

“Very practical approach to data modeling and very business oriented. It was a great pleasure listening to Alec.”

Pascal Ghijsen Head of portfolio analytics, APG Asset Management

“Using business language to model your business data is an absolute plus in this course. Alec is very energetic & knowledgeable.”

Pavel Dimitrov Lazarov Governance, Risk & Compliance Auditor, Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A (Generali Group)

“Course that I will recommend to my colleagues and boss. Nice method and great clarity from great teacher!”

In-house Info

Practically all of our seminars and workshops can be offered as an In-house course for your company exclusively. We can tailor with extra focus on specific topics that apply to your organization. Also available in online format or in face-to-face format with live video stream.

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