UNIT OBJECTIVE

After studying this course, you should be able

to:
a. Understand steps in gathering information
b. Define and list requirements
c. Define business rules
d. Search materials for noun to define entities
and attributes
e. Identify candidate keys for entities
 Introduction
Gathering Information
● Before you can actually begin designing a database,
you must understand what data the database needs
to store and how that data will be used.
 Introduction
Gathering Information
● Gathering information is a complex task. Most
projects have many facets that need to be accounted
for. It can be quite daunting, but there are some basic
steps to help you proceed.
 Introduction
Gathering Information
● Initial interviews with the chief stakeholders (the
managers or executives initiating the database project)
● Review of business documents to identify data
elements
● Interviews with stakeholders
● Questionnaires
● Work shadowing (observing the flow of information)
 Introduction
Gathering Information
● Reviewing Business documents includes:
a. Forms - A document, paper or electronic, that is used to
gather data.
b. Reports - A document, paper or electronic, used to
display summarized or formatted data.
c. Procedures - Documents that describe the approved
steps for completing some business process.
 Introduction
Gathering Information
● Documentation - It is important to keep a record of your
information-gathering process. A list of the business
documents you looked at, along with your questions and
answers about each, can prove invaluable later when you are
reviewing your database for completeness.
● Summaries of interviews and questionnaire results are also
important. All these documents should be kept in a project
notebook.
 Introduction
Client/Server Relations
 Introduction
Client/Server Relations
● A server is a program that makes a “service” or
resource available for a “client” that requests it.
● Some computers are called “servers.” Generally, this
means that they are optimized to run server software.
They often have more processing power and memory
than other computers.
 Introduction
Client/Server Relations
● Most database management programs also act as
servers. They make database resources such as data
available to the programs that request them.
● The requesting program is called a client.
● The client could be a Web page or a windows
program or even another database requesting data.
 Introduction
Client/Server Relations
● It is important to note that what makes a server or a
client so is the relationship between them:
● A server provides services requested by a client.
● The server and client can be on the same physical
machine, or they can be on separate machines in
different parts of the world.
 Introduction
Client/Server Relations
● Database design is one major task.
● Designing the client application or applications for
the database is another major task.
 Requirements
● A database requirement is something the
database needs to have or do in order to meet
the business needs of the organization for
which it is being built.
 Requirements
● Example: For instance, in the Tutoring database, if
someone needs to make reports on student gender
and ethnicity, then the database must have
attributes that store those values. It is a requirement
of the database. Another requirement might be that,
for legal and privacy reasons, the personal data of
students must be secured so that only those with
valid reasons and permission can view or edit them.
 Requirements - 3 Kinds
● Data requirements
● Report requirements
● Access and security requirements
 Requirements - 3 Kinds
● Data requirements - This refers to the attributes
the database must contain in order to store all
the information an organization needs for its
activities. To record a point-of-sale transaction,
for example, the database would need to have
attributes for the sale number, the date, the
customer, the items and quantities purchased,
and the prices of those items among others.
 Requirements - 3 Kinds
● Report requirements - Most databases need to
generate several different kinds of reports,
summary information often gathered from
several different entities. The entities must
contain the data needed to make these reports,
as mentioned earlier, but also be related in a way
that makes it possible to bring the various pieces
of data together.
 Requirements - 3 Kinds
● Access and security requirements - Often some, or all, of
the data in a database are confidential. Databases
typically contain core business information that could be
of great value of to a competitor, or it may contain things
such as credit card numbers or social security numbers
that could pose financial and legal risks if revealed to the
wrong people. An essential requirement of most
databases is to develop a security schema that determines
who has access to what data. Anyone without the proper
authentication credentials should be excluded.
 Requirements - 3 Kinds
● Access and security requirements - Often some, or all, of
the data in a database are confidential. Databases
typically contain core business information that could be
of great value of to a competitor, or it may contain things
such as credit card numbers or social security numbers
that could pose financial and legal risks if revealed to the
wrong people. An essential requirement of most
databases is to develop a security schema that determines
who has access to what data. Anyone without the proper
authentication credentials should be excluded.
 Review Requirements
Tutor Requirements

Student Requirements
 Review Requirements
Tutoring Admin Requirements
 Access and Security
● User Access - It refers to what objects and
data in a database a user has permission to
use.
● Security involves determining who has access
to database objects and data and what kind of
access they should have.
Types of Access
Types of Access
Types of Access
 Business Rules
● Business rules - are rules about how the data are
captured and used and what limits or constraints
are placed on the data.
● Business rules describe the rules that govern the
way data are acquired, stored, and used by the
business.
● Some of these rules can be enforced in the
database, and some will need to be built into the
client application that is built on the database.
Sample: Business Rules
Sample: Business Rules
 So far...
List of nouns
 So far...
List of nouns
 So far...
List of nouns
 So far...
List of nouns
 Entities and Attributes
● Entities are things that a database is concerned
with, such as students, inventory, orders, or
courses, and so on.
● Attributes are aspects of entities. They are things
that describe an entity or belong to it.
● Entities are a part of the logical design of a
database.
● The logical design is independent of any database
management system.
 Keys
● Ideally, every entity should have a key attribute—
one attribute that uniquely identifies an instance
of that entity.
● Candidate keys are attributes that could possibly
be used as identifying attributes.
● A good candidate key must be unique.
● If there is no good candidate key singly, attributes
can be combined to form a “composite key.”
 Keys
● Keys that are based on attributes that
belong naturally to the entity are
sometimes called “natural keys.”
● Surrogate Key - An artificially created
key, often just auto-incremented
numbers.
 Primary Key Guidelines
● Keys that are based on attributes that
belong naturally to the entity are
sometimes called “natural keys.”
● Surrogate Key - An artificially created
key, often just auto-incremented
numbers.
Any questions?