Steve Hoberman is one of the world's most well-known data modeling gurus. He taught his first data modeling class in 1992 and has educated more than 10,000 people about data modeling and business intelligence techniques since then. Steve is known for his entertaining, interactive teaching and lecture style (watch out for flying candy!), and organizations around the globe have brought Steve in to teach his Data Modeling Master Class, which is recognized as the most comprehensive data modeling course in the industry. Steve is the author of "Data Modeling Made Simple," "Data Modeler’s Workbench" and "Data Modeling for the Business (Technics Publications). He is the founder of the Design Challenges group and inventor of the Data Model Scorecard.

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Making the Connections
May 1, 2011 A data model traceability tool that stores and manages connections makes analysis, modeling and integration activities quicker...

Data Slang
March 10, 2011 The latest terminology from data modelers’ own lexicons

Take Responsibility for the Data Model
November 1, 2010 The data modeler's job is not necessarily over until the work is effectively implemented

Slowly Changing Dimensions: Type 3 for Me
September 1, 2010 Different types of SCDs are chosen for technological reasons, but is the decision ever driven by business needs?

How Long Will the Modeling Take?
July 1, 2010 Design challengers share techniques to estimate the modeling portion of projects

Who Owns the Data Model?
May 1, 2010 Does the business, the development team, the individual developer, the application manager, database administrator, own the...

Creating a Successful High-Level Data Model
March 5, 2010 The ten steps for completing the high-level data model

Data Modeling in the Cloud
March 1, 2010 Will the cloud make our data management jobs easier or harder?

Where Does XML Fit?
November 1, 2009 Is an XML document a logical model or a physical data model?

Is Cost a Fact?
September 15, 2009 Design Challengers debate whether item cost amount should reside in the fact table or a dimension

Stay Sharp During Tough Times
July 21, 2009 Four activities to promote professional growth despite economic whitecaps

How to Produce Adequate Definitions
May 19, 2009 Clear and complete attribute definitions improve data deliverables

When Data Becomes Metadata
April 13, 2009 As business users expect search engine-type functionality, the role of data values changes

My Hero Zero
March 20, 2009 Design Challengers justify optionality in a data model

As Low as You Can Go
February 11, 2009 Advantages and drawbacks to dimensional models at their lowest level

Application, Data Architects Duke It Out
January 29, 2009 Following these four suggestions will help level the playing field

What’s a Good Name for the High-Level Model?
October 31, 2008 There is a difference of opinion in what to call a high-level data model

Design Challenge
September 22, 2008 Design Challenge: What techniques would you use when you have business-side involvement that lacks business expertise?

Is GUID Good?
August 21, 2008 What are the pros and cons of using a GUID for a surrogate key?

Canonical Data Model
July 23, 2008 Please define “canonical data model” and give an example.

Spam Model
June 20, 2008 In what situations would you use each of these models?

Product Availability
May 20, 2008 How would you capture the business rule that certain product data elements are only relevant and required for certain countries?

Ontology and Taxonomy
April 14, 2008 How would you define ontology and taxonomy, and how do they differ?

Customer ID
March 18, 2008 A customer identifier is the unique identifier for a customer.

Subtype Key
February 20, 2008 A subtype inherits its primary key from its supertype. If the supertype is Party, for example, we copy the Party ID down into...

Timeless Dimensional Model
January 17, 2008 When I teach dimensional modeling, I always stress the need for a time dimension. Recently in a session, a participant (Bill...

Think Data Instead of Process
January 3, 2008 Are there techniques that you have used with success to help get people thinking data instead of processing it?

A Dimensional Enterprise Data Model
November 29, 2007 Can an enterprise data model be dimensional?

Recursive Fact Table?
November 2, 2007 Can a recursive relationship on a fact table actually be physically implemented?

Broken Shells
October 1, 2007 Have you ever had to analyze or model a concept in your organization where enough changes could occur to create a completely...

Null Alternate Key?
September 1, 2007

Data Dictionary, Are You Out There?
August 1, 2007

Rules on Rules
June 1, 2007

Super Star
May 1, 2007

Definition Differences
April 1, 2007

Flexible Hierarchy
March 1, 2007

Getting Physical with Subtypes
February 1, 2007

Role of the Data Architect
January 2, 2007

Decoding Codes
December 1, 2006

Aggregation, Summarization and Abstraction Demystified
November 1, 2006

Physical or Logical?
October 1, 2006

Global Address
September 1, 2006

To Surrogate Key or Not
August 1, 2006

Medals for Model Layout
July 1, 2006

The Person ID
June 1, 2006

What is the Enterprise Data Model ROI?
May 1, 2006

Please help provide a methodology to improve a poorly designed data mart.
November 4, 2005

Do you have a "best practices" example of an enterprise process where schema changes can be authorized and the model and database kept in sync?
April 3, 2005

Data Modeling Essentials Book Review
March 1, 2005 Data Modeling Essentials, Third Edition, is a practical guide to one of the most critical stages in the development of a...

When designing the dimension for a call center do I keep the information in a denormalized form or break it into logical mini dimensions?
November 1, 2004 We are building a data mart for a hotel chain's call center. We have a huge customer information table in the source...

I'm being asked to add a "deprecator" indicator to my code tables to indicate when a valid value is no longer used.
July 8, 2004 I'm being asked to add a "deprecator" indicator to my code tables to indicate when a valid value is no longer used. This...

Do you have a standard template for gathering business requirements for enterprise data requirements project?
July 8, 2004 Do you have a standard template for gathering business requirements for enterprise data requirements project?

Can a single data staging area serve two masters, operational (ODS) and analytic (data warehouse)?
December 9, 2003 Can a single data staging area serve two masters, operational (ODS) and analytic (data warehouse)? Is a single data...

I've been asked to implement a
December 9, 2003 I've been asked to implement a "model management plan" for a group of data and business analysts who use ERwin and BPwin....

When should I use a bitmappped index?
December 9, 2003 When should I use a bitmappped index?

In the insurance industry there are a lot of calculations that could be performed on the premium amounts.
August 4, 2003

In a corporate information factory model, how does the 3NF enterprise data warehouse capture slowly changing dimensions if in the source system the dimensional attributes get updated (Type 1)?
July 2, 2003 In a corporate information factory model, how does the 3NF enterprise data warehouse capture slowly changing dimensions...

How effective is data warehousing for the manufacturing industry?
May 2, 2003 How effective is data warehousing for the manufacturing industry?