Information technology students in the database class at Broadview University-West Jordan had the opportunity to look at the full picture of database design. They took on the task of building a database from scratch and taking it through the testing to a final basic product.
Most of us have worked with a database in some form. We’ve learned how to run reports and find the information we needed. But how many of us have taken the time to ask how that database came to be?
Students had different opinions about what they considered to be the most important step in the process. One student said, “I spent over four hours testing just one query to make sure it came back right. Testing is really important.”
Another said, “The interview (of the end user) is the most important part. It’s like writing a research paper without doing the research.”
IT program chair and database instructor, Steve Hunsaker advised his students to, “keep it simple. The worst thing you could do is overthink and over-architect”
The one point all the students could agree on was a database is never complete. There are always changes that need to be made in order to make the information it produces the most accurate.
