A methodology and tool for derivation of functional dependencies from business forms

摘要

Business forms are used as the main input to the process of derivation of a set of functional dependencies. Through a form model, business forms are abstracted into form schemata. By analyzing the form schemata, functional dependencies which exist between the form fields are derived. For this derivation, a rule-based inferential approach was implemented. System knowledge was organized into rules for selection of the next form to be analyzed, identification of the determinants of functional dependencies, derivation of single attribute determinant functional dependencies inference of multi-attribute determinant functional dependencies. The rules in the first category use knowledge about the form flow to determine the order in which the forms are analyzed. The rules in the next three categories determine functional dependencies.