TABLE OF CONTENTS The database management system software (DBMS) is the fundamental "heart" of the data management system. In some cases, it may not be possible to select the DBMS before the initiation of a data management project, as there may already be a system installed. The guidelines presented in this section should be considered regardless of the stage at which the DBMS is selected.
The selection of a DBMS is made easier to a certain extent because there are a relatively small number of mature, proven DBMS applications available on the market. On a corporate scale, the most frequent choice is Oracle . In the desktop world of PCs, Microsoft's Access product is the most common application. That being said, these are not the only products available, and both products have their limitations and disadvantages. This section discusses the issues that must be addressed when assessing a DBMS product. Additional resources can be found in Appendix A.
Suitability to project objectives. Once the project objectives have been defined (see the preceding section), the functionality of the DBMS can be compared with those objectives. If the primary focus of the project is to develop a large, cross-platform corporate DBMS, a product like MS-Access is not suitable. For a small, nonnetworked, individual database, an expensive, powerful, enterprise-scale product like Oracle would be overkill.
