[thelist] Guidelines for Data Entry?

[RUST Randal]

I'm having trouble finding anything worthwhile on Google for this. What
I am looking for are reasons to only allow a user to enter a specfic
type of data in one place. 

In one of our applications, the client has two modules - Organization
and Staff Members. Obviously those are interrelated, as each
Organization would have Staff Members. The problem is that Staff Members
goes under Organization, and not at the same level. To further
complicate the situation, users will also be able to add Staff Members
by selecting an Organization and then clicking on the Staff Members menu
option. Here is what the hierarchy looks like:

Organization -> Staff Members -> Add/Edit Staff Member

Staff Members -> Add/Edit Staff Member

So I'm looking for feedback that says this is a bad idea. Because it is.
Information should be added hierarchically in an data-gathering
application, not like this, where you can disassociate child data
elements from the parent data element. Organization and Staff Members is
just an example. There are literally 15 elements that have one->many
relationships with Organization that would work in the same fashion.

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Randal Rust
Covansys Corp.
Columbus, OH