Data Model and Structure Descriptions and the Finance System
Abstract
This report consists of two major sections. The first is a discussion
of three data model types: Relational, Network, and Hierarchical. These
discussions do not intend to fully explain the concepts behind these database
designs, but rather give a brief introduction to the data model behind each.
The second section is a description of the Finance System. The Finance
System is a software system I developed for my parents to use for maintaining
their household finances. Design began with several discussions between my
parents and I. While they explained the structure of their finances, I
planned how these ideas could be implemented. This was a difficult task
because I had to take all of this information and divide it into categories
while preserving the relationships between these categories. Each category
developed into a subsystem. Creating these subsystems was helpful in two ways.
First, it made it much easier for me to understand their finances.
Second, they made the actual coding much easier because
instead of writing one big program, the task was to write several smaller
related routines. Even though this is not a new concept in computer
programming, it is definitely a good example of the technique. After these
subsystems were created, it was just a matter of understanding the details of
each. To give an overview of the Finance System, a brief description of each
subsystem follows.