A protocol for evaluating an OODBMS

Master thesis in Computer Science

Anders Carlsson

Introduction

Databases are central parts of todays computer and software systems.

Explore what are the features of the system that influence the choice of system.

Problem description

Many different OODBMS available. Wide range of functionality on

different systems. Lack of time to evaluate many

systems. => A method for faster system evaluation

is needed.

Research questions

What features are important

when selecting which object oriented database management system to use?

How important are these features

compared to each other?

Goal: Protocol

Is to be used when evaluating an OODBMS.

Describes… …what features are important. …how important the features are.

Research process

Preliminary activities Literature study Interviews Survey on DBMS Survey on OODBMS

Protocol elaboration Evaluation of the results

Literature survey

Goal: Deepen the understanding of database management systems.

Books and databases at the Infocenter.

Papers and articles on the Internet.

Interviews

Goal: Verify the correctness of the results from the literature survey.

Two database administrators. One system developer. One person - both DBA and

developer. Three students at BTH.

Survey on DBMS

Goal: Verify earlier results and give a rate on how important the features are.

Web based. Sent out to 134 companies, 123 in

IT-business.

Survey on OODBMS

Goal: Verify earlier results and give a rate on how important the features are.

Web based. Sent out to four people with

experience on working with OODBMS.

Results

List of mandatory features for an OODBMS.

List of features not mandatory, with rating on importance.

Protocol for evaluation of an OODBMS.

Guideline on how to use and compare results.

Protocol

Containes a description of how to perform a certain task.

Includes information on how to use results from protocol implementation.

Some parts are fixed and some open.

Reliability: Feature list

Very reliable. Compound from a wide range of

literature and empirical data from the industry.

Reliability: Importance rate

People involved in answering the surveys have experience on working with databases for at least 5 years.

Reliability could be improved by… …gathering more answers to survey

than is the case now. …perform new interviews regarding the

found rate.

Validity

Valid only for guidance in selecting systems for further investigation.

The protocol is not a complete evaluation tool.

Lack of statistical support for importance rating.

Future work

Increase reliability of importance rating; conduct new surveys.

Evaluate a number of systems according to the protocol to get empirical data on its validity.

Questions

Project web site: www.oodb.actk.net