Re: Database analysis

Subject: Re: Database analysis
From: Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>
To: Susan Hogarth <hogarth -at- gmail -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2007 11:54:47 -0800

Susan Hogarth wrote:


Now, I *had* asked to run it by a consultant, but he didn't want to
pay her. Now he says I should have insisted. *sigh*.

If you had insisted, you'd have been petulant! Does a tech writer ever really "win"?

Anyway!!! Onward!!!

ARF!
(This is fun. I'm a sled dog, and you're Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. :-)

What are the sorts of questions one asks
when looking at existing databases to see what they do and how that
can help shape a new database of the same type but a different focus?

=8?|

It depends, doesn't it? f you're fishing for funding for a project (is it that type of proposal?) then you'd want to ask some economic questions, along the lines of "How will the costs of this project be returned in the form of benefits?" Obviously, you need a good reason to develop a new database, so target that .

If you need to go deeper, into the database design, and even if you are fluent in query and scripting languages and can read the database like a pro, I still have to say that a DBA or analyst is needed to help you develop a plain English data dictionary, if you don't have one that explains the meaning of the tables, fields, reports and their uses .


The databases in question contain information culled from scientific
literature. Not reference information, but actual data.

All I can figure at this point is that you're proposing a new database analogous in form and function to an existing one. For example, you have a database containing oceanographic data , and you're proposing a similar one for terrestrial data.

Brainstorming results:
Since you're pitching a proposal for a new database, you need to couch this stuff with an explanation of why you need a new one. IOW, ask why a new one is a good idea, and then ask if an existing model could be adapted for the new one. Then you declare that you've actually found the model for it, and explain how they're similar or different, and how the model will save a bunch of time and effort.

I think you have to ask question about what the original database does for researchers, and how that is appropriate for the database you want to create. I would go for the 30,000' view of the type of data in the original database, the uses it serves, where the data comes from/how difficult or expensive is it to collect, and maybe a few items to claim that it is a good design (maintainable, cost-effective, or some such).
Eh?
---------
Ned Bedinger
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com
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References:
Database analysis: From: Susan Hogarth

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