Database Reference
In-Depth Information
complete. It raises the question, “Are there any tasks we've forgotten to include in
the mission statement?”
You can fix this mission statement by removing the references to specific tasks (be sure to
save them for the next step) and rewriting the statement. Here is an example of one of the
possible ways you could rewrite this mission statement:
The purpose of the Whatcom County Hearing Examiner's data-
base is to maintain the data the examiner's office uses to make
decisions on land-use requests submitted by citizens of Whatcom
County.
Notice howthepurposeofthedatabase hasbecome muchclearer inthisversion.Alsonote
that the statement is more succinct and doesn't give the impression of being incomplete.
You'll always have a clear focus during the database design process when you formulate
your mission statements in this manner.
Composing a Mission Statement
The process of creating a mission statement involves conducting an interview with the
ownerormanageroftheorganization,learningabouttheorganization,anddeterminingthe
purpose of the new database.
You conduct the interview for this step with the owner of the organization or, if he directs,
the appropriate staff. Either will be able to help you define the statement because each has
an overall understanding ofthe organization and a general comprehension ofwhythe data-
base is necessary in the first place. Besides helping you to define the mission statement,
this interview will also provide a great deal of information about the organization itself.
This information is valuable because you can use it later in the design process.
Encourage the interview participant to discuss as many facets of the organization as she
can, even if the discussion relates to issues that aren't directly relevant to the database. The
ideahereisforyoutounderstandwhattheorganizationdoesandhowitfunctions;themore
you understand an organization, the better prepared you will be to design a database that
will fulfill its needs. The organization's general need for a database will become clear to
you once you have a better understanding of the organization itself. You can then translate
this need into a mission statement.
Be sure to ask open-ended questions during the interview. In some cases, a good question
can prompt the participant tostate the purposeofthe database without much effort.Forex-
ample, say you posed the following question:
“How would you describe the purpose of your organization to a
new client?”
