User-guided Database Schema Generation For Naive Database Developers

The world is abound with data. Data creates value and competitive edges to an organization when it turned into more strategic, customer-oriented, and competitive information, a great significant to the continued health and survival of an organization. Hence, almost every organization has employed a Database Management System (DBMS) to store and manage the huge amount of data. However, problem exists when the ability to leverage the latest techniques and basic features of the tools has historically fallen to a limited group of experts - the certified or database developer with great expertise gained through the years of experiences. Having the software available alone is not enough to support users’ data storage intention due to the concept of database design itself will need to be understood and mastered by the users before they can use the software effectively. This would require formal database design training and cannot be done over a night. As such, the first problem lead to second issue - most users tend to avoid using DBMS but rather opt to keep their data using more familiar software such as Excel spreadsheet or Word processor. This decision even though seems to be appropriate to most users has its drawbacks due to the nature of the software themselves. The objective of this research is to solve the issue above by developing an approach method for users who has less experiences and understanding in database design to be able to develop their own database schema. This proposed user-guided approach will basically prompt users with successive relevant questions and from the feedbacks captured, a database schema will gradually be developed. The scope is first focusing on the database developer in Malaysia due to time constraints. The research method used will be exploratory and constructive where researcher are require to collect data such as survey on the students and naïve database developers and interview the database expert and then make a solution based on design thinking and rapid application development (RAD) of system development life cycle (SDLC). At the end of research, researcher are expected to the generate algorithms and initial prototype for the formulated method to provide a user-friendly platform for the developer or user to reduce the above issue. The technology advance will assist them to deploy a solution that best fit to their need with more scalable, secure, multi-user framework. In short, the research can provide a significant value to the new and less experiences database developer, business and IT research field to make the process simple and understandable.