Designing methods for quality

A metamethod for designing methods that achieve quality requirements is provided and MetaASSO, a step-wise approach to the design of a conceptual database design methodology, named ASSO, is described. MetaASSO starts from the proposal of a method for meeting two conflicting quality requirements: flexibility in modifying a database schema and efficiency in accessing and storing information. More concrete proposals that increase the quality requirements are then given until a modular design is achieved. The provided approach makes it easy to describe ASSO and the modules, called methodological tools. Furthermore it favours the achievement of practical results. Features of ASSO can thus be reused to design an ASSO-toolkit that performs the proof process at a low cost.