Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Compiling a Complete List of Fields
The Preliminary Field List
Nowthatyouhavecompletedyouranalysisofthecurrentdatabaseandtheinterviewswith
users and management, you can create a
Preliminary Field List.
This list represents the or-
ganization'sfundamentaldatarequirementsandconstitutesthecoresetoffieldsthatyou'll
define in the database. You create the Preliminary Field List using a two-step process.
Step 1: Review and Refine the List of Characteristics
The first step involves reviewing and refining the list of characteristics you compiled
throughout the analysis and interview process. As you learned in
Chapter 3
, a
field
repres-
ents a characteristic of a particular subject; therefore, each item on your list of character-
istics will become a field. Before you transform those characteristics into fields, however,
you first need to review the list to identify and remove duplicate characteristics.
During the interviews, you identified various characteristics within each participant's re-
sponses and compiled them into a list as the interview progressed. There were probably
times when you mistakenly added the same characteristic to the list more than once, or un-
knowingly referred to the
same
characteristic by two or more different names. As a result,
your list of characteristics requires some refinement.
Refining Items with the Same Name
Begin refining your list of characteristics by looking for items with the same name. When
you find one or more occurrences of a particular name, determine whether they all repres-
entthesamecharacteristic. Remove allbutoneoccurrence ofthenamefromthelistifthey
do represent the same characteristic; otherwise, determine what each instance of the name
represents.You'lloftenfindthataduplicatenamerepresentsthe
same type
ofcharacteristic
as its original counterpart but should be associated with a different subject than its coun-
terpart. In this case, you rename the duplicate to reflect how it relates to the appropriate
subject.
Assume,forexample,thattheitem“Name”appearsthreetimesonyourlistofcharacterist-
ics. Your first inclination will probably be to remove two of the occurrences because your
current objective is to eliminate duplicate characteristics. However, you should determine
whether each instance of “Name” represents a distinct characteristic before you remove it.
You can easily make this determination by examining your interview notes; this will help
you remember when and why you added the item to the list.
After careful examination, you discover that the first occurrence of “Name” represents a
characteristic of the subject “Clients,” the second, a characteristic of the subject “Employ-
ees,” and the third, a characteristic of the subject “Contacts.” You resolve this duplica-
