Database Design for Mere Mortals™: A Hands-On Guide to Relational Database Design, Second Edition

Defining the Mission Statement

In the previous chapter, you learned that the mission statement declares the specific purpose of the database in general terms and that you define it at the beginning of the database-design process. Furthermore, it provides you with a focus for your design efforts and keeps you from getting diverted and making the database structure unnecessarily large or complex.

The Well-Written Mission Statement

A good mission statement is succinct and to the point. Verbose statements have a tendency to be confusing, ambiguous, or vague; they do more to obscure the purpose of the database than to clarify it. Here is an example of a typical mission statement:

The purpose of the New Starz Talent Agency database is to maintain ...