From the developer: "The Better*FileMaker*Developer mission is to create better FileMaker developers worldwide. Through tools, education, training and information we enable the average FileMaker developer to produce higher quality solutions in less time than they would otherwise spend. How to make a clean mess and keep a happy system: Surprisingly often users don't know what they can get until they see your first efforts. The brief you get a month into a project (when they have seen how the system works) and the brief you got at the start will often be miles apart. I have countless times heard 'If only I?d known you could do THAT, I would have told you up front, but I thought it wouldn't be possible'.

"So how do I get that @@#$!!&** structure right? Specify from the rear but develop from the front: So, this is one of the most important principles?and a real conundrum. Yes you must specify from the rear. Find out what the system should eventually produce. You work your way backwards through the transactions to assess what inputs are required. While doing so you will automatically ? effortlessly ? map all the business procedures and processes.

"THEN once you have gone through these hard parts, you implement the front end first, where people put the data in, fine tune the model, get it right. Implement support for processes and procedures. Fine tune until they all fit perfectly with the business model. And finally you create the outputs. A Taste of Normalization (Getting the structure perfect) 'The secret to creating successful database design every time is to correctly translate the entities into files.'"