Describe or Design? That is the question!

Welcome to the "Describe or Design?" data modeling survey. There are just six questions that should take you about 7 minutes to complete.

This survey forms part of my research for the Dissertation phase of my MSc in Information Systems Management at Liverpool University.  

Acknowledgement: This survey is based on the work of Dr Graeme Simsion who has kindly agreed to allow me to use material from his PhD thesis which shows that opinions differ on whether data modeling is a descriptive task or a design task. 

A descriptive task requires that the "something" that you are to describe already exists. But design is creative. There is no presumption of a pre-existing "something".

Context is everything so it's best if all parties to a data modeling project agree on the context of the project. Is it a design task or a descriptive task? 

By participating in this survey, you are helping to shed more light on this important topic.

Thank you for your contribution.

Ken Evans
ken.evans@ormfoundation.org