System Analysis and Design: Maria Cecilia P. San Jose Professor
System Analysis and Design: Maria Cecilia P. San Jose Professor
and Design
MARIA CECILIA P. SAN JOSE
PROFESSOR
DATA DICTIONARY
A data dictionary is a specialized application of the
kinds of dictionaries used as references in everyday
life. The data dictionary is a reference work of data
about data (that is, metadata), one that is compiled
by systems analysts to guide them through analysis
and design.
A data dictionary, or metadata repository, as
defined in the IBM Dictionary of Computing,
is a "centralized repository of information
about data such as meaning, relationships
to other data, origin, usage, and format".
DATA DICTIONARY
As a document, the data dictionary collects
and coordinates specific data terms, and it
confirms what each term means to different
people in the organization. The use of data
flow diagrams are an excellent starting point
for collecting data dictionary entries since
data and information and its flows are shown
in the DFD.
DATA DICTIONARY
One important reason for maintaining a data
dictionary is to keep clean data. This means that
data must be consistent. If you store data about a
man’s sex as “M” in one record, “Male” in a
second record, and as the number “1” in a third
record, the data are not clean. Keeping a data
dictionary will help in this regard.
In addition to providing documentation
and eliminating redundancy, the data
dictionary may be used to:
Our Contact Person Text 40 Name of theperson who Sheryl dela Cuz
received the ordered
Product/item
Quantity Delivered Numeric NNNNNNNN 8 Number of items 1
delivered
Description Text 40 Description of the Sanyang Dining Table 6
product seaters
Name Text 40 Name of the person Sheryl dela Cruz
who received the
delivered product
Signature E-signature Electronic signature