Designing methods for quality

A stepwise approach to design methods for quality is provided and MetaASSO, the step-sequence resulting in a conceptual database design methodology, is described. Starting from the initial proposal of a method to achieve minimal conflicting quality requirements, MetaASSO reflnes it until it obtains the design of ASSO. ASSO presents peculiaritìes with respect to other database design methodologies; the peculiarities are concerned with the methodological tools: the Structured Database Schema, a conceptual model designed to specify information with flexibility while guaranteeing consistency, the Partitioning, a method designed to refine the Structured Database Schema towards correct and effìcient implementations, and the relations between ASSO and B, formal links established to achieve practical results designing an ASSO-toolkit based on the B-toolkit.