Item: SAP PowerDesigner
Rating: 8
Author: Gene Baker

Overall Satisfaction with SAP PowerDesigner

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use SAP PowerDesigner as our E-R Modeling tool for our application suite. We have twenty-four databases with approximately 3000 tables and 50,000 data elements. We use a repository-based version of the tool and are able to create multiple models that can be used to show various subject areas within the system. We have also taken advantage of customizing the templates to generate objects based on the DDL for the table. PD is an enterprise approved tool and our group has used it since 2001. I personally have used it since 1996.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Data modeling
Maintaining a consistent data dictionary through the use of the repository.
Custom templates for generating objects off of tables.

Cons

It took some time to figure out how to leverage the power of the repository. Some better examples in the documentation would have been helpful.

Return on Investment

Recently, the corporation started a big initiative on data governance and making sure we have the appropriate documentation. While other teams were scrambling, we were all set because we had our data dictionary and our many data models documenting the system.
Great tool for team collaboration.
Nice to be able to extend what the tool does through the use of custom templates.

Alternatives Considered

erwin Data Modeler

The version of ErWin we had didn't support the repository for document sharing and data dictionary sharing. Our version of PD does so we were able to leverage that and have a central repository that is shared among the team members. That really helped to give us consistency across our databases. PD is easy to use, but getting the repository set up properly was a little tricky.

Support Rating

We did have to reach out to support to learn how to properly utilize the repository feature and share the data model across many developers. Support was able to help us get this set up correctly. The downside was it took us several weeks before we gave up and contacted support. We should have done that earlier. I would say, however, the documentation wasn't clear on how to do this. So support was a great big help!

Key Insights

Do you think SAP PowerDesigner delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with SAP PowerDesigner's feature set?

Yes

Did SAP PowerDesigner live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of SAP PowerDesigner go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy SAP PowerDesigner again?

Yes

Other Software Used

MongoDB, MongoDB Atlas

Likelihood to Recommend

SAP PowerDesigner allows our team of data modelers to work and collaborate from a single repository and single data dictionary. This helps enforce consistency as data elements are referenced in other objects. Prior to our use of PD, we might have an element named "ppt" in one table, "participant" in another table and "part" in a third table. By forcing everything to be used from the data dictionary, we avoid these situations because everyone has to go to the dictionary. And we are able to easily do peer reviews on models before they are released because we are collaborating through the use of the repository.

Comments

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PowerDesigner allows team collaboration and helps support strong data governance.