Database Reference
In-Depth Information
soon after the meeting so that you can come to a final conclusion and resolution to
the issue.
•
Always maintain control of the interview.
This is the single most important
guideline for every interview you conduct. Inevitably, something goes wrong the
moment you lose control of the interview. For instance, say you have a situation
where one of the participants begins to change the focus of the interview by dis-
cussing issues that have little or no relevance to the topics on your agenda. You'll
certainly lose control of the interview unless you do something to redirect the dis-
cussion. Regaining control of the interview will be easy for you to do in some
cases, but in others you'll just have to declare your portion of the interview “com-
plete” and let the participants carry on with their discussion. You can avoid situ-
ations like this so long as you maintain control of the interview.
Interviews are an integral part of the design process and I provide examples of them
throughout the next several chapters. You'll find sample dialogue that illustrates typical in-
terview scenarios and examples of questions you might use during a given interview. (The
sample questions always relate to the type of interview you're currently conducting.)
Note
The purpose of an interview example is to illustrate the
techniques
you use to con-
duct a specific type of interview, and I've kept the dialogue relatively simple for
thisreason.Usethedialogueasameansofcomingupwithgoodideasforthetypes
of conversations you conduct in the interview.
One final point: Keep in mind that the guidelines I've presented in this section are merely
recommendations.
I suspect that you won't be able to apply all of these guidelines to every
interview you conduct or even apply them to the extent to which I've described. I would,
however,expectyoutoapplythemfullyinanidealsituation.Yes,Iknow—youdon'tcome
across ideal situations all the time. Neither doI.But youcan still make it yourgoal to meet
as many of these guidelines as possible. In the end, the person who stands to gain the most
is you.
The Case Study: Mike's Bikes
There are numerous examples throughout the topic that illustrate the concepts and tech-
niques used in the database design process. I've drawn these examples from a variety of
databases and used them in an arbitrary fashion. Using them in this manner allows me to
demonstratethatonceyoulearnhowtoapplyaparticularconceptortechnique
generically,
