Re: Basic Access Database Design

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On May 25, 6:58 am, Klatuu <Kla...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Both Amy and Steve offer good suggestions. I would like to offer mine.
Before you design any tables or fields. A flow chart is a good idea. I
perfer Visio.
But, it is not the data or the application I flow first. I start with the
business requirements and the work flow. For example, "Customer Places
Order", "Customer Credit Authorized (Y/N)", "Item In Stock (Y/N)", "Create
Picking Ticket", "Create BackOrder", "Order Assembled", "Order Packed", "Ship
Method Selected", ect.

Then determine the data required to support the work flow.

Then design talbes, fields and relationships.

Then design forms and reports.

And so on.

You can always tell if an application has been designed by someone who got
the requirement then immediatly started codeing.
--
Dave Hargis, Microsoft Access MVP



"Ronster" wrote:
I'm starting a new Access 2003 project which will probably require
around a 100 tables or so with lots of VBA code. My basic question is
should I flowchart the entire application first? There are hundreds
functions for this application and I would like to make sure I see how
they all relate before starting into table design. I'm working with a
user who knows what he wants and we have roughly layed it out. I know
flowcharting could be a very time consuming process and wonder if I
would be better off just jumping into the design, table layout,
normalizing, etc. Any thoughts? Any good books or web sites that
cover start-to-finish Access design? The web sites I have seen rarely
mention flowcharting.

Thanks.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

All the above are excellent suggestions and I thank you. Dave I like
your suggestion and I do have Visio 2003 and was wondering whether you
preferred one drawing type over another. For example under Business
Process there is the Work Flow Diagram which I haven't worked with
before but looks interesting. I've primarily used basic flow charting
with Visio. I do like the idea of having it all layed out before any
code is written.

Ron

.

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