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Technical Documentation

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by claude102

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I was wondering if anyone would have a copy of a technical document of a database. If so could I please have a copy, so I can see what is required to put into such a document. Iam currently do it a TAFE.

Thank you for your help.

Claude

6 replies

by donq

There are MANY database products on the market and each is a little bit unique. If you are attempting to learn about a specific database I would suggest purchasing a book from any technical section.

If you are attempting to learn how database products work there are many "Normalization" and/or "Data Modeling" white papers available for free over the internet at Microsoft, Oracle, Borland, etc. websites. It's hard to tell what you are after with such a vagur question!

by albert franco ii

Documenting custom databases is a very nebulous concept. It's not often done and almost never done well... The idea is to include all of the information needed to 1) use the information in the database, 2) maintain or moddify the database structure,and/or 3) create new uses for the information in the datbase.

The audience may be technical or non-technical.

Once you have decided on the use and audience for the document then you can decide what level of detail or abstraction is needed.For example if the audience is technical and the use is maintenance or modification then what is usually considered ok for documentation is a collection of excel speadsheets which describe the various tables and their fields, as well as a listing ofthe indices on the tables. There should be a diagram which describes the interconnection of table through lookups, referential integrety, master/detail etc. The commented code for all stored procedures and/or triggers should be included.

If the audience is non-technical then you would have to "digest" this information and describe it in "plain English". Commented code is a waste of time for non-techs and instead a list of business rules applied is more appropriate.

As far as formats go, the "standards" can be found in books on the topic, but in the real world (outside the Fortune 500) those standards are not very common place.

If you wish, you may contact me at apf2.IHateSpam@apf2.com. (remove the commentary...)

Good Luck!
Al Franco, II
APF Creations
Pamplona, Spain

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