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Canyon College

COURSE SYLLABUS: Database Design

Course Title: Department: Instructor:

CST394 - Database Design Computer Science Sarah Scott, MS, BA E-mail | Vitae

Course Description:

Database Design provides a detailed introduction to database concepts, components and management issues. The course covers data definition and modeling, database access and command languages, and design and implementation in the context of the relational database model. The relative advantages and disadvantages of other database models are considered from a management standpoint. The course requires a term project involving a database software product.

Required Text: Online Bookstore

Database Processing Fundamentals, Design, and Implementation, 8th Edition, Kroenke, published by Prentice Hall http://www.prenhall.com/kroenke
ISBN #: 0130648396

The course project requires access to a relational database system. You can download MySQL Server and Clients free http://www.mysql.com
You will need it starting in Week 2.

Learning Objectives

Attached are the course objectives. Every class is to some extent a unique interactive experience, which may cause some variance within the stated objectives, in either content or level. Individual faculty, based on their experience and expertise, are encouraged to add objectives, as they deem appropriate, and to communicate these directly to the class. The Learning Objectives of the course will depend on the design of the course, the quality of instruction, and the motivation and capabilities of the students, including time available for studying and the effectiveness of the effort.

1. Given a basic understanding of business database needs, identify the components and functions of a database system and analyze the applications and benefits of databases to business requirements.

2. Given a set of typical business reports, use the entity-relationship and object models to document the information requirements and rules.

3. Given a completed E-R diagram, or object model, normalize the data into a relational design and prepare relational application programming requirement documents.

4. Given a database application, analyze database implementation and processing issues such as data manipulation techniques, SQL, and report generation.

5. Given a database application, compare and contrast the implementation issues involved in various architectures including PC, client/server, distributed, and mainframe environments

6. Given the demanding and changing role of corporate databases, recognize leading edge developments such as intranet, Internet, multimedia, and object-oriented database applications, and analyze the management issues involved in each.

Weekly Assignments and Readings

Week

Learning Objective

Topics

Assignments and Readings

1

A

- Introduction to Database Processing - Introduction to Database Development

Chapters 1 & 2

2

B

- The Entity-Relationship Model - The Semantic Object Model

Chapters 3 & 4 Forum #1 Project Proposal

3

C

- The Relational Model and Normalization - Database Design Using Entity-Relationship Models

Chapters 5 & 6 Forum #2 Entities and ERD

4

C

- Database Design with Semantic Object Models - Foundations of Relational Implementation

Chapters 7 & 8 Forum #3 Normalization and Relational Model

5

C

- Midterm Quiz

Review Chapter 1 - 8 Forum #4

6

D

- Structured Query Language - Database Application Design

Chapters 9 & 10 Forum #5

7

E F

- Managing Multi-User Databases - Networks, Multi-Tier Architectures and XML

Chapters 11 & 14 Forum # 6 Sample Data Entry Form

8

ALL

- Final Exam - Final Project

Database Project Report

Grade Breakdown:

Threaded Discussions Project Midterm Quiz Final Exam

30% (5% each) 30% 20% 20%

Forum Topic Grading Policy

Students have asked about grading standards for contributions to forum topics. I generally look for quality of response as well as quantity. I think a lot of the real learning takes place in the forums, so I'd like to see everybody in the Forums 3 or 4 times/week, but I know, that's not always possible, so I look for contributions that add value to the discussions at hand.

Course Project:

Students will select a situation or problem from their company that can be solved using a database system. Using MySql, the students will create a relational database model of the system. The students should read each step of the project before starting.

Step 1 - Project Proposal (Due week 2)

Step 2 - Entities and ERD (Due Week 4)

Step 3 - Normalization and Relational Model (Due Week 5)

Step 4 - Sample Data Entry Form (Due Week 7)

Step 5 - Report (Due Week 8)

Step 1 - Project Proposal

The project proposal should include a general background of the business, a description of the problem associated with the database project, and a description of any industry or company- specific terminology used within the project. The users and clients of the database system should be identified. The overall purpose and benefits of the resulting database system should be identified.

All source documents that will be used in the project should be identified and described. This includes all raw data, knowledge, and rules that will be used to develop the database system. In other words, all of the pieces of the database need to be collected, identified, and described in this step.

The deliverable from Step 1 is a 2-page document describing the project as well as a sample of the source documents. A one-page document that catalogs the source documents may be appropriate as well.

Step 2 - Entities are identified and an ERD is developed.

Chapter 3 provides the knowledge needed to identify the entities and ERD for the project, and several samples are given throughout the chapter. At this time, the scope of this project should be analyzed, and the E-R diagram should comfortably fit on a single piece of paper. If the E-R diagram cannot be confined to a single piece of paper, the student needs to narrow the scope of the project and reassess the goals in Step 1.

The deliverable from Step 2 is the one-page E-R diagram.

Step 3 - Data is normalized and a relational model is developed.

Chapter 5 provides the knowledge needed to create object diagrams for the project. The student should normalize the data into the 4NF or DK/NF as advised by the instructor. Then, using Access, the student should enter the fields, tables, and relationships between the tables.

The deliverable from Step 3 is a listing of functional dependencies or Domain/Key Definition document.

Step 4 – SQL Statements Report

Create a document that contains the 5 most difficult SQL statements you used when building your database. Under each statement write what the purpose of the command. Chapter 9 covers the SQL statements you will be using to build your database.

Step 5 – Visual Report of your MySQL database

Take a snapshot (using ATL-PrintScrn) of your winMySqlAdmin screen with one of your database tables selected. You can now paste it into a document. Discuss in your document the most difficult portion of the database to create. List 5 facts you would like to pass onto future students that you think are imperative to understanding databases.

Along with the document, go to your MySQL folder and zip up your data folder and attach it to you submission.

When managers analyze their environment or develop plans they encounter unknowns. They may not know the political climate in Malaysia where they are opening a plant. They may be planning on laying some workers off and need to provide outplacement services and need to know what services are available and what they cost. They usually have to estimate costs. In technology projects they often have to research available technologies, products, suppliers and available equipment and techniques.

When unknowns are encountered you have two choices:

1) Make it up
2) Find out

Real world managers do occasionally have to guess. Guessing is not all bad -- it represents the operation of sophisticated heuristic algorithms on an enormously complicated neural network architecture computer (your Brain!). But, unless this neural network is TRAINED (we call this experience), the guess may not be a good one. If your experience is not comprehensive enough, the other approach, finding out, may be needed. In this class, you are strongly encouraged to employ the second approach and find out!

We call this applied business research.

Because the on-line environment gives us the time to think, consider, and research our contributions to the threaded discussions before we post them, the quality of contributions is expected to be high, and this will be reflected in the grading standards. Please support all your comments with some degree of evidence. Even if you are an expert in a particular area, you still need to support some claims. Reference your experience for example. If we all make an effort to not let the threads turn into a casual conversation, everyone will benefit.