Suppose we've been contacted by a car dealer who wants to computerize parts of his business. Let's describe a little bit about this business. In Chapter 2, we will examine the data collecting phase for our system more formally.

This car dealer operates at a single address. They employ nine salespersons who dutifully welcome potential customers and show them the car models that are available on the floor. In addition, two store assistants handle car movements, and an office clerk takes notes about customers' appointments. Fontax and Licorne are the two fictitious brands offered by this dealer. Each brand has a number of models, for example Mitsou, Wanderer, and Gazelle.

We want to keep information about the cars' inventory and sales. The following are some sample questions that demonstrate the kind of information our system will have to deal with:

Here are the titles of some reports that are needed by this car dealer:

In addition to this, screen applications must be built to support the inventory and sales activities. For example, being able to consult and update the appointment schedule; consult the car delivery schedule for the next week.

After this data model is built, the remaining phases of the application development cycle, such as screen and report design, will provide this car dealer with reports, and on-line applications to manage the car inventory and the sales in a better way.