Intelligent system for conceptual modelling of databases

Conceptual database design is seen as the most important stage of a database design process, as the conceptual model produced at this stage is the first design model constructed with formal and detailed semantics. The stage, however, is also viewed as a difficult task for designers, and the potential for committing and correcting errors is significant. As a result, it is not surprising to see the emergence of a number of intelligent systems providing assistance in the design of such a model. The paper presents one such system, called the Intelligent Object Analyser (IOA). One unique feature of IOA is that it consists of a pluggable component containing a domain specific dictionary. This component is used to enhance certain aspects of the diagnostic capabilities of the IOA system. During use, the IOA has exhibited the capacity of performing two aspects of design (design synthesis and design diagnosis), and the provision of domain dictionary is proved to be one of the solutions towards enhancing the intelligence of the system