From conceptual model to end user implementation

Abstract

For a number of reasons many users are responsible for the implementation and maintenance of their own databases. While they may have the technical skills to set up data repositories, many end users lack the analysis skills to design a conceptual model which accurately reflects the subtleties and complexities of their requirements. In this paper we discuss why it is important for end users to obtain help in developing a full conceptual model of their data. We propose a number of ways to capture the most essential aspects of the model to produce a simplified design that an end user can be reasonably confident of implementing and using accurately. We discuss how the simplifications may impact on the final application. Our simplification methods are illustrated with an example of a scientific database and we also show how to represent the simplified model in both a database and a spreadsheet.