Hi,
As a project manager and application architect now working in a university I was amused that anyone could state "The measure of success of a database is not its conformance to data standards, but the ease and speed with which information can be retrieved".
So success would be seen as being able to search and find a single record despite the fact that the database may:
- be written in software that no others can currently access and when the expert leaves cannot be used.
- be based on a model that has no semantic relationship to other heritage models and therefore has no relevance for transfer.
- allow inadequate information to be recorded so mapping to other external items cannot be made
- allow 'free text' entry which means there are several hundred items which should have been retrieved.
A sorry state of affairs but not untypical when most databases are designed as a solution rather than a service.
Simon Walton
|