TABLE OF CONTENTS The most common failure in any data management effort is not understanding exactly what the end user needs not to be confused with what the end user wants, which may be impossible to deliver. Often, database managers with an IT background or programmers will attempt to deliver a product that is very suitable for a generic accounting database application but is unacceptable for geotechnical applications. These are two different problems: the user's inability to define and/or articulate actual needs and the implementation group's lack of understanding the unique aspects of a geotechnical DBMS.
End-users are, in fact, the customer or client for the data management product. Unfortunately, they are seldom consulted when a new data management application is introduced. This part of the planning process is critical for the success of the project. After all, if the customer (in this case, the end user) does not accept the product, there is no point in developing it in the first place.
In this case history, an international company had already selected a commercially available relational database management system (RDBMS) and was ready to start loading data for the users. Unfortunately, the team of information management specialists had planned the project with little or no input from the actual users. The original project schedule had called for a two-year period of data loading, quality control, and training before the actual data were provided to the users. Making matters worse, the commercial product ran...
