Dear fellow Database Developers,

I need your perspective as database developers on the topic of referential integrity and other database integrity constraints through a short survey (2 to 6 minutes). This is towards a paper I am developing on the subject.

I am a practicing Database Administrator/Database Developer (18+ years). Currently, I also double up as a graduate student in the newly developing science of “Information Quality”. (The world’s first graduate program was started Fall 2006 by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

Connecting my academic commitment to studies in Information/Data Quality with my experience as a database developer, I have decided to research on some questions that have intrigued me in the past. In my working experience, I have come across quite a number of relational databases deficient in database integrity constraint implementation such as referential integrity (RI). The questions that came to me were; what are the major reasons behind this lack of constraints? Database integrity constraints have prompted tremendous research and development in vendor laboratories and in academia. However, industry may have exhibited some reluctance and I am on the quest for the actual reasons from the field. The results of this survey should be of interest to practitioners and theorists in the areas of relational database development as well Information/Data quality.

The database constraints being referred to include referential integrity constraints, check constraints (Rules in the case of SQLServer/Sybase/Oracle) and triggers. To some, triggers may seem odd choice for business rules enforcement. However they offer a rich capability of rule enforcement besides it was also the only choice in certain RDBMs at one time. Questions have skip logic and your answers affect what further questions you are asked.

Confidentiality and anonymity is guaranteed in our survey. We do not ask for any personal information. While your participation is critical to the success of the research, it is also voluntary. None of the questions in the survey are mandatory. You may quit from the survey at any time by closing the browser window. A copy of the results will be available upon request. This survey is not sponsored by any commercial entity.

To start the survey, please follow the link http://www.ualr.edu/tkdasgupta/dbquality.htm .

If you have any questions on the survey, do not hesitate to email me.

Thank you very much for your time and cooperation.

Sincerely,

Tonmoy Dasgupta,
MSIQ Graduate Student,
IBM Certified DBA DB2 UDB V8.1 for z/OS
IBM Certified DBA DB2 UDB V8.1 for Linux, Unix and Windows
IBM Certified Solutions expert DB2 UDB V7.1

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