2 The Data Dictionary

LANSA Application Design

2. The Data Dictionary

To achieve the full benefits of the Data Dictionary in LANSA's centralized Repository, certain standards need to be adopted and rigorously enforced. These include:

  • Establishing and controlling who is authorized to add and update details in the dictionary.
  • Ensuring elements and fields are defined only once.
  • Whoever is authorized to maintain the data dictionary details should be committed to the concept of using a corporate-wide vision. Every element should be considered for it's impact on the whole organization, not just for one program in one application.

All designers and application developers should refer to the data dictionary for the definition of an element.

Using a centralized Repository may extend the design phase of a project but this will easily outweigh the benefits achieved during the development and maintenance phases.

Consistency in validity checking, error messages and the names used on screens and reports and provides immeasurable benefits to end users.