Volume 7
Volume 7, Number 18 |
April 2, 2009 |
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Eghosa Ugboma
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Abstract: The data table planning sheet is the third tool used at the information-level (conceptual) phase of the database design aspect of an information system. Although rarely used in comparison to the frequencies with which normalization process and entity-relationship model are used to illustrate the information-level phase of a data structure, the planning sheet describes each data field’s requirement, including the field’s rules for storing reliable data that defines the structure of the data table. The tool uses the declarative data restriction approach to mark out the required rules for each field of a user table. These rules are the underlying factor for establishing the reliability and the dependability of data within the data table of an information system. In addition, the instrument follows the data modeling principles of the second level of the planning phase of information engineering and it is used to model data to meet the reliability requirement stipulated for the data table used by an information system. This paper shows how the planning sheet is used to optimize the data table an information system uses. In other words, the paper demonstrates how the tool helps achieve the quality of data for an information system, as well as, maintaining the worthiness of data for the system. Using this instrument (a) documents the characteristics of a data table, (b) ensures that the restrictions the table’s data must obey are enforced, and (c) make certain that the user requirement is satisfactorily met.
Keywords: rules, restrictions, planning sheet, Information System, Information Engineering, data table, dDatabase
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Recommended Citation: Ugboma (2009). Establishing the Worthiness of Information Systems Data through Information Engineering. Information Systems Education Journal, 7 (18). http://isedj.org/7/18/. ISSN: 1545-679X. (A preliminary version appears in The Proceedings of ISECON 2006: §3132. ISSN: 1542-7382.)