A requirements and design aid for relational data bases

Abstract

A tool is described for defining data processing system requirements and for automatically generating data base designs from the requirements. The generated designs are specific to System R but the mapping rules are valid for the relational model in general and can be adapted to other data models as well. The requirements and design are stored in a System R data base, are cross-referenced with each other, and can be accessed and used for other purposes. The requirements are defined in terms of an organized common-sense semantic model and serve the function of the Conceptual Schema in the ANSI/SPARC three schema framework. The tool generates (synthesizes) relational designs that have no redundancy, no update anomalies, and are in 5th normal form. The requirements analysis and design generation procedures are illustrated with a case study.