Database Reference
In-Depth Information
ticipant's belief that specific fields are necessary on a given report. Or you might wonder
why another participant wants to
exclude
certain fields from one of his reports. You defin-
itely want to make sure that the fields he wants to exclude are truly unnecessary and that
removing them will not have an adverse effect on the information the report provides to
otherpeople.Ineithercase,theinclusionorexclusionoffieldswillaffectthefinaldatabase
structure.
If a report has one or more remarks that are cause for concern, review it with the appropri-
ate participant and settle as many of the issues as you can. You can usually resolve all your
concernswithafewsimplequestions,butinsomecasestheresolutiontocertainissueswill
notbecomeapparentuntillaterinthedesignprocess.Forexample,youmighthavenoticed
that certain fields appear on two or more reports. It's difficult to determine if the fields
are being unnecessarily duplicated until you begin to define the field and table structures.
When you encounter an issue that is difficult to resolve at the present time, make a note of
it and put the report aside for later review.
Future Information Requirements
The last subject of discussion concerns
future
information requirements. Your objective
here is to identify the information that the participants believe will be necessary for them
to receive as the organization evolves. Once you identify these future information require-
ments, you can ensure that you define the data structures necessary to support that inform-
ation.
You first need to make sure that every participant has some idea of how the organization is
evolving. The nature of the organization's evolution will determine what new information
participants will require. If several people are unacquainted with these issues, you'll need
toobtainthisinformationfrommanagementandthenrelayittotheparticipantspriortothe
discussion. Once everyone is familiar with these matters, you can begin the conversation.
Start the discussion by directing the participants to think about the future evolution of the
organization and how it may affect the work they do on a daily basis. You'll often find that
some participants are going to have a difficult time envisioning this scenario. When this
happens, use questions such as these to help them focus their thoughts:
How will the organization's evolution affect the amount of information you'll need
to do your job?
Do you think you'll need additional types of information to carry out your duties
effectively as the organization evolves?
How will the evolution of the organization increase the time you spend on your
daily tasks?
