Abstract
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) makes extensive use of relational modelling to do database design work during systems development. The Bureau's approach to data modelling has evolved over the past seven years, and is now an integral part of ABS methodology for conducting data analysis.
In the course of this methodology, a relational model for the data of a particular application system is developed, refined and used as a medium for the specification of usage, backup and security requirements. The simplicity and familiarity of relational modelling concepts allows subject matter and other non-database specialists to play a very active role in database design. The methodology has some useful inbuilt checks and balances to help ensure the quality of the resulting data model design.
Several ABS applications have found that use of non-relational facilities such as periodic groups and multiple value fields is essential in obtaining feasible ADABAS implementations of their relational model designs. However some quite direct implementations have been attempted successfully. The ABS is utilizing and developing a number of ADABAS implementation techniques which achieve economies in storage space and accessing i/o without unduly comprising the relational design.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.