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BUILDING AN ACTUARIAL DATABASEDo’s and Don’ts
WHY A DATABASE?
Review long term needs Is Excel a database? Separate the data from the calculations and
reports It’s all about relationships Auditors will find you Focus on actuarial specific issues
PLANNING
Who is going to use the system (it’s not about you!)
Understand your data flow (Business logic out)
What will be your tables Set up relationships between the tables Indexing and primary keys (say Google)
Normalize Controls …
KEY CONTROLS
Inventory (record count, reserves etc.) Micro calculation / auditing capabilities Trending, reasonableness Output transfer – nothing lost … worth the price of admission
IMPORTANT CONTROLS
Using lookup tables – Data integrity Properly defining fields – Dates Forced relationships preserve data integrity
STRATEGIES
Path independence Function separation – data (admin vs. user),
code, report Compacting … automatically Object naming conventions (no spaces) Display progress (status bar) Document, document, and document
THE MAGIC OF QUERIES
Standard Query Language (SQL) Select, Delete, Update, Append, Make Table Make them dynamic for real power Use global functions (with care)
DATA INPUT
Usually most critical part Controls and Monitor “Caching” data … Indexed Annuity
CALCULATION AND AUTOMATION
Code vs. Macros Beware of external references Power of VBA
OUTPUT
Separate from data Minimize reports … dynamic Make an actuary happy … pivot table friendly Avoid cross tab queries in a report No smart reports
FINAL ANALYSIS
Functionality vs. Resources Study