A quantitative approach to data base design

Abstract

The first step in a traditional design of an information system is to identify the data elements. This is usually followed by the design of the hierarchic structure of the database. Application programs are then designed to form the operational portions of the system. This approach suffers from the drawback that the processing in the application programs is restricted by the design of the database. A far better approach to the entire process would be to define the data requirements of application programs and then use these requirements to configure the database. This paper provides a scheme for classifying the processing requirements of data in application programs. This classification scheme is then used in a quantitative analysis to identify the proper design of the database. Although the concepts developed in this paper are applicable to several design approaches, this analysis deals specifically with hierarchic structures to be used by IBM’S IMS.