We present details of a goal-oriented process for
database requirements analysis. This process consists of
a number of steps, spanning the spectrum from high-level
stakeholder goal analysis to detailed conceptual schema
design. The paper shows how goal modeling contributes
to systematic scoping and analysis of the application domain,
and subsequent formal specification of database requirements
based on this domain analysis. Moreover, a
goal-oriented design strategy is proposed to structure the
transformation from the domain model to the conceptual
schema, according to a set of user defined design issues,
also modeled as goals. The proposed process is illustrated
step-by-step using a running example from the design of a
real-world, industrial biological database. We also report
early progress towards building full tool support, by presenting
a prototype that captures and stores design sessions
in a queryable form. This facility makes it possible to answer
questions that are hard, if not impossible, to answer