A method for describing information required by the database design process

Abstract

Current research in the area of database design has been directed towards the development of structured or automated database design techniques. The first phase of the database design process, information requirements specification and analysis, is unfortunately ignored. The lack of concern for whether or not the input to the design techniques can be collected in the real world and for wheather or not the input is an adequate and complete representation can only result in an inadequate and possible useless database design.Most database models and design techniques utilize only process-oriented information. Other techniques utilize non process-oriented information whose foundation may not be clearly identifiable. The use of only process-oriented information may result in a narrowly defined unimaginative database design which may be unresponsive to the changing needs of the organization. To overcome the shortcomings of this traditional approach, it is necessary to complement it with an additional approach.This can be accomplished in three steps. First, the description and use of the information required for the database design process must be clearly stated. Second, two independent perspectives for viewing the required information must be considered: the information structure perspective and the usage perspective. The information perspective depicts the natural characteristics of data, inherent groupings and relationships. This perspective is not bound to existing or future applications; hence it is a more general and flexible view of information than one which is process oriented. The usage perspective describes how data items are utilized by the system in order to accomplish its processing requirements. Third, a vehicle for aiding the specification itegration of these two independent perspectives must be considered.