This Pages shows the application of
our General Approach to Database Design.
It is based on a structured method to establish the FACTS :-
1) Define the Area of Interest,(e.g. the HR Deparment).
2) Define the "Things of Interest",(e.g. Employees), in the Area of Interest.
3) Analyze the Things of Interest and identify the corresponding Tables.
4) Establish the relationships between the Tables.
5) Determine the characteristics of each Table,(e.g. an Employee has a Date-of-Birth).
6) Obtain a small set of Sample Data,
e.g. "John Doe is a Maintenance Engineer and was born on 1st. August, 1965 and lives at 22 Woodland Street, New Haven.
"He is currently assigned to maintenance of the Air-Conditioning and becomes available in 4 weeks time"
7) Confirm the first draft of the Database design against the Sample Data.
Obtain from the users some representative enquiries for the Database,
e.g. "How many Maintenance Engineers do we have on staff coming available in the next 4 weeks ?"
Review the Results of Steps 1) to 7) with appropriate people, such as Users, Managers,
Development staff, etc. and repeat until the final Database design is reached.
This Page shows a draft set of FACTS for an HR Department.
You can also see Conceptual Data Models for separate areas :-
Complaints Data Model
Employees Data Model
Organisation Structure
Skills and Training Model
Barry Williams
Principal Consultant
Database Answers
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