FWIW, I usually start by getting the user/customer/client to tell me what they want to use the application for (Mostly reporting? Mostly data entry with a little reporting? Passthrough for a larger process? Feed into a larger process? Get fed from another process?). The answer to that question actually answers a lot of smaller questions.

The next questions I ask are: 1) Does the application need to inteface with ANY other application, if so - contact points for the other applications, 2) Who is the primary contact for data entry, 3) Name of the network/web support personel (never want to surprise them), and last but not least 4) what kind of security they want/need.

After that, I generally start from the data and work my way out to data entry and reporting.

>Greetings,
>
>This may be a rhetorical question, but I'm curious as to how you approach designing a new program/application. Everyone doesn't use the same approach, but I'm sure there are similarities.
>
>For example... you determine data requirements first, then you may develop data entry modules followed by menus, etc.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Vernon