Table 1 — Summary of rating system by number of criteria 



Number of 

 criteria 



All 



Number of criteria met 

 Only 2 Only 1 None 



1 

 2 

 3 



+ 

 + 

 + 



Rating 







0+ 0- 



the questionnaires for evaluating the criteria are de- 

 scribed in the following section. The coding system 

 used to reference the questionnaires is as follows: 

 Ql or Q2 for questionnaire 1 or 2; Roman numeral I, 

 II, or III for the major part of questionnaire 2 where 

 the question is found (not applicable to questionnaire 

 1); the section number, if applicable, such as A or H; 

 the specific question number, such as 3 or 4. For ex- 

 ample, Q2-III-H3 designates questionnaire 2, part III, 

 section H, question 3. In developing the criteria, for 

 summary purposes, we used only those questions 

 that addressed the major DBMS features. 



1. Import/export large amounts of data. 



•Criteria 1. Capable of importing large amounts 

 of data. 



•"Yes" response to Ql-9. 



•Criteria 2. Capable of exporting large amounts 

 of data. 



•"Yes" response to Q2-III-H7. 



2. Edit data already in the data base. 



•Criteria 1. Capable of editing data already in 

 the data base. 



•"Yes" response to Ql-10 (or any response to 

 Q2-III-C1). 



3. Error-check data. 



•Criteria 1. Capable of checking for data errors. 

 Meet all of the following requirements: 



•"Yes" response to either Ql-12 or Ql-13 

 (error-checking procedure available). 



•"Yes" responses to at least three of the four 

 types in Q2-III-D1 (types of errors procedure 

 checks for). 



•"Yes" response to at least one of the two 

 procedures in Q2-III-D3 (definition of error 

 limits). 



•"Yes" response to Q2-III-D4 (use of previous 

 measurements). 



•"Yes" response to Q2-III-D6 (unique tree 

 numbers). 



4. Store large amounts of data. 



•Criteria 1. Storage of large amounts of data is 

 not limited. 



•No software categories checked for Q2-I11-A3. 



5. Store remeasurement data. 



•Criteria 1. Experience with storage of 

 remeasurement type data. 



•Number of measurements listed in Ql-7 is 

 greater than 1. 



•Criteria 2. Capable of merging remeasurement 

 data with existing data. 



•"Yes" response to Ql-11. 



6. Safeguard the data and their integrity. 



•Criteria 1. Capable of safe, long-term backup 

 of data. 



•"Yes" response to Ql-15. 



•Criteria 2. Capable of safeguarding the integ- 

 rity of the data. 



At least two of the three requirements below 

 are met: 



•"Yes" response to Q2-III-I4 (data base safely 

 available to outside programs). 



•(a) Data entry into data base via transaction 

 file (Q2-III-G3), or (b) data entered directly 

 into data base (Q2-III-G3) and a + rating for 

 error-checking data (feature 3 above). 



•"Yes" response to Q2-III-G4 (designation of 

 read-only users). 



•Criteria 3. Capable of automatically recording 

 changes made to the data base. 



•Changes either automatically written to a 

 printer or automatically cataloged (Q2-III-F1). 



7. Provide for recording commonly measured plot 

 and tree characteristics. 



•Criteria 1. Capable of handling the data from 

 many measurements on a plot. 



•Number of measurements listed in Q2-III-E1 

 is six or greater. 



•Criteria 2. Capable of sufficiently describing 

 sampling designs. Both of the requirements 

 below are met: 



•For Q2-II-1 (sampling levels), plot, subplot, 

 and tree levels checked and at least one of 

 the following levels checked: stand, installa- 

 tion, study. 



•"No" response for Q2-II-2 (restricted descrip- 

 tion of sampling designs) or if a 'Yes" response 



3 



