Samples of Good and Bad Database Mission Statements
Using Michael J. Hernandez text definition of a database mission statement as a guide, that is “the mission statement establishes the purpose of the database and provides you with a distinct focus for your design work” in his book Database Design for Mere Mortals, the following are examples of good and bad mission statements (2003).
Good Mission Statement:
“To work with other organisations towards a global culture of data collection to create a European wide repository of information on the practice of cardio-thoracic surgery as a tool for quality improvement and to disseminate that information in such a way that it is easily accessible and understandable to our patients and the public” (European Association For Cadio-Thoracic Surgery, 2012).
Bad mission statement:
“This site has been created with a number of key goals in mind:
Using relational database system (RDBMS) supports both of the objectives of the organizations based on their mission statements. Both mission statements indicate the use of CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) functionality which is the basic functionalities of a RDBMS. By using database normalization, elimination of data redundancy by elimination of duplicate rows will be achieved by both databases. Based on their mission statements, both databases deals with large amount of data, so eliminating data redundancy will greatly reduce the amount of storage space these companies. Reducing inconsistencies will also be achieved since when one column is updated, the related column will automatically be updated. Based on the type of data these companies will store, there is a need to protect the integrity of the data they offer and any inconsistencies with downgrade these efforts of the databases.
Since these types of databases cater to multiple users, there is a possibility of concurrent access to specific data. Using RDBMS will support the multi-user accessibility function sought by these databases which can be controlled by the individual users.
The only disadvantage of using RDBMS is that if these companies are going to implement these databases other than those supporting SQL, they will be hard-up since, RDBMS is only supported by SQL.
References
Decaire, Michael. (2012, January 15). Mission Statement. In The Ultimate Forensic Psychology Database. Retrieved from http://forensics.thedatabase.org/mission.htm
European Association For Cadio-Thoracic Surgery. (2012, January 15). Database: Mission Statement. Retrieved from http://www.eacts.org/content/database-mission-statement
Hernandez, Michael James (2003). Database design for mere mortals: a hands-on guide to relational database design. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=dkxsjXNayHQC&printsec=frontcover&hl=tl#v=onepage&q&f=false
