================================================ SearchDatabase.com's Database Developer June 20, 2001 ================================================ Welcome to the searchDatabase.com Database Developer newsletter! Today's tip, "The database development life cycle" can also be viewed online at: http://www.searchDatabase.com/tip/1,289483,sid13_gci750181,00.html ------------------------------------------------ LEARNING ZONE FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK ------------------------------------------------ "SQL for Smarties: Advanced SQL Programming, Second Edition" By Joe Celko "SQL for Smarties" was hailed as the first book devoted explicitly to the advanced techniques you need to transform yourself into an expert SQL programmer. Now, in this fully updated second edition, SQL mastermind Joe Celko keeps you moving forward, using his entertaining, conversational style to teach you the best solutions to old and new challenges and to convey the way you need to think if you really want to get the most out of your SQL programming efforts. http://www.digitalguru.com/dgstore/product.asp?isbn=1558605762&ac_id=58 ************************************************ "The database development life cycle" By Mike Blaha To ensure extensible, flexible and fast applications, database developers should heed tried-and-true software engineering principles. The typical stages of database application development--and indeed all types of development--include analysis, design, implementation, data conversion, testing, training, and maintenance. This article from InformIT discusses four common approaches: Waterfall --------- The classic life cycle paradigm is the waterfall approach. Developers perform the software development stages in a rigid linear sequence with no backtracking with this approach. The waterfall approach is suitable for well-understood applications with predictable outputs from analysis and design. It is also used in many contractual situations, especially for government projects (regardless of its suitability). A waterfall is inappropriate for applications with substantial uncertainty in the requirements, which is true for most applications you will encounter. Too many organizations attempt to follow a waterfall when requirements are fluid. This leads to the familiar situation in which developers complain about changing requirements, and the business complains about an inflexible information systems (IS) organization. A waterfall approach also does not deliver a useful system until completion, which makes it difficult to assess progress and correct a project that has gone awry. Summary: Strengths - Suitable for applications with predictable outputs. Weaknesses - Copes poorly with fluid requirements. Does not deliver a system until completion. Rapid Prototyping ----------------- With this approach, you quickly develop a portion of the software, use it, and evaluate it. You then incorporate what you learned and then repeat the cycle. Eventually, you deliver the final prototype as the finished application, or switch to another approach after a few prototypes. You must quickly cycle through prototypes (typically, an iteration every two or three months) for this approach to succeed. Rapid prototyping focuses on the input of user interviews; if you can glean information from other input sources, you can reduce the number of prototypes. Rapid prototyping promotes communication. You learn about the needs of the customer, and the customer learns what automation can provide. Thus, prototyping targets a core difficulty of software development--finding the true requirements. Rapid prototyping provides frequent checkpoints for assuring customers that development is going well. It also lets developers experiment with troublesome aspects of design and implementation. They can test a difficult algorithm, and find whether it works well before committing to a full implementation. The prototype may be throwaway, or it may be gradually elaborated until you achieve a working system. This is the weakness of rapid prototyping: Often a prototype is unsuitable for enhancement, but you may receive business pressures to enhance it, nonetheless. The key to success is to be prepared to discard early prototypes. Prototypes should be enhanced only if they are successful in the field and have a robust architecture. Summary: Strengths - Elicits requirements. Provides milestones. Lets you experiment with troublesome issues. Weaknesses - There may be business pressures to extend a fragile prototype. Must throw away code. Click here for the remainder of the article, including a discussion of the two other development approaches--incremental and 4GL: http://www.searchDatabase.com/tip/1,289483,sid13_gci750181,00.html MORE ON THIS TOPIC: The Best Database Development Languages Links--tips, tutorials, scripts, and more: http://searchdatabase.techtarget.com/bestWebLinks/0,289521,sid13_tax281563,00.html Have a development (SQL, Java, ODBC, etc) tip to offer your fellow developers? 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