Contact databases are pretty classic for this sort of thing. Everyone knows how they are supposed to work, so requirements don't become an issue. There is opportunity for you to "require" light data manipulation.

BTW, if it is of help, I am happy to schedule the two-hour webinars by request. If your applicants or new hires need a quick intro to Sesame Designer or SBasic programming, let me know and I'll schedule the webinars on whatever dates you need.

Quote:


Format the phone numbers.
This simple requirement will show you some important things:
1. Do they use On Element Exit or the more efficient On Element Change?
2. Do they include they ability to handle entries that don't match the preferred format? If so, do they handle them gracefully, or do they create user-frustrating traps or invasive popups?
3. Do they copy the code for each phone number field, or do they know to use a global Function?
4. Do they understand basic string handling and the difference between numbers and text?

BTW, not choosing the "preferred by 15 year experience with multiple language programmers" option on any of the above is not necessarily a failure on their part, but their choices should give you a very good idea of how much general programming knowledge and experience the person has.

I wonder if you are really going to be able to keep a Database Administrator busy full time?  I don't know your business demands, but most companies that I deal with have no full time database person or IT person.   Of course, I deal mostly with small businesses under $10M.  Your situation could be quite different.

Your needs for database support may be heavy now, during Sesame development, but what about after design is done?  Once your app is designed, I suspect that daily changes will be minimal.  The most common demand might be report generation/modification.  Again, once done, maintenance will be minimal.  Creative report designs can minimze the need for new reports, selecting from picklists/menus, prompting user for temp changes to existing retrieve specs, date ranges, sorting, etc. and other values. 

So to keep this person full utilized when design is done, you may be looking for other IT skills in addition to database management. Network support, router and firewall issues, Internet support and web page development, integration with other applications, etc.

When you consider the full cost of a full time database administrator benefits, supervision, the future cost of replacing that employee and retraining another, etc., You may find that the cost of hiring outside Sesame help on demand may be less expensive.

Yes, I can provide this type of outside support, but so can many others.  I am just making a suggestion to you that you may not have considered.  I just wanted to remind you to make sure you are asking all the correct questions before you decide to hire a full time Database Administrator.  For full time employment, you might want a more general type of IT person who can provide Sesame support as part of a full set of IT tools.

In any case, good luck with your use of Sesame.