Five of six · Designing records
Before anybody can build a computer system, somebody has to decide what kinds of thing it
will know about, and what facts it is allowed to hold about each of them.
It sounds like the dullest job in the world. It is the point at which it is decided whose
name will fit in the box, and whose will not.
A small charity has asked you to sort out its records. It knows about people, and it knows about the organisations those people work for, and at present all of it lives in a spreadsheet that three people edit at the same time.
Your job is to write down what exists. Not to describe the world, which is what it will feel like, but to rule on it. Whatever you write down is what the system will be able to say, and anything you leave out will be unsayable for as long as the system runs.
Start with something that could not be simpler. How do you store a name?
Pick one.
Four more sections follow, and they respond to the choice you make above. Pick one of the three and the rest of the page opens.