Handling Change Requests with Data Modeler

Did you know that you can also add change requests to Data Modeler? And you can easily get reports on unfinished change requests…

Below you can see a new change request I added to an entity Customer already on Oct the 2nd.

I add change requests quite frequently and definitely have no time to follow them all manually. How do I know that all have been finished?

I go to Find (search), the binoculars icon on the Tool bar.

I select the Advanced Mode and select Change Request as “Object Type”. Then I can see all the properties for a change request on the list of “Searchable Properties”. I select “Completed” and define it should be false.

Press Find.

And voilá. In Results tab I see all the change requests that are not finished.

But. I need a report to our project manager who makes sure somebody finishes this task…

I press the Report button.

I select PDF as the Output Format (I could select HTML, XLS or XLSX if I want), I give the report and the file a name. I could use an existing or create a new template but I am happy with the default report. I press Generate Report. And here we are…

I am ready to inform the project manager…

But what if the project manager wants to edit the change requests but refuses to learn how to use Data Modeler? Do I need to be his/her secretary? no…

I run the report in XLS or XLSX format and pass it to him/her to edit with Microsoft Excel. Then I get it back. The project manager edited the status, completion date and notes (“I have closed this change request/Tim”). I go ahead and right-click the Logical Model in Data Modeler and select “Update model with previously exported XLS (XLSX) file”.

I select the report file Tim sent me. And let it go…

Data Modeler gives me a log on what has been updated:

And to prove to you it was really updated, see the Notes for the change request in Data Modeler:

Was that easy? It sure was!

Why did I want to have the change request in Data Modeler? Because now I have all the documentation about the database in one place. On the entity I can always go and check what has been changed and when.