Just one more anecdote

I'm sure there are numerous factors playing into the fact that the
system touted in this MS Word document
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/casestudies/ShowFile.asp?FileResourceID=1611

has been discontinued and written off to the tune of $67 million in s/w
development as seen at
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050721/clth018.html?.v=16

This is yet another instance where a legacy system written with a PICK
(in this case), MUMPS, IMS, or other pre-relational database product
didn't successfully make the jump to a SQL-RDBMS.

It is very likely that the conceptual data model and surely the
subsequent logical data model from which the original system was
developed would not play to the strengths of the SQL-DBMS. As much as
we might want to think otherwise, even the design of a conceptual data
model is influenced by the designer's knowledge of the target dbms. A
redesign of the data model for a SQL-DBMS is likely to both bump
features and increase complexity -- a harsh one-two punch.

My conjecture is that downgrading, I mean moving, from a graph data
model to a relational data model and from a PICK dbms to the SQL-DBMS
were significant factors in this project failure. I could be wrong, of
course.

smiles. --dawn

.

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