Database Systems Development Coursework 2019-2020

U30232 School of Computing

Database Systems Development

Coursework 2019
Module Coordinator Mark Venn
[email protected]
Date Issued 25th September 2019
Module Code DSD / U30232
Title Database Systems Development

Schedule and Deliverables

Item Format Deadline Late / ECF Deadline
Coursework Task 1 One file (.pdf) 23:00 13th March 23:00 27th March 23:00 10th April
2020
Coursework Task 2 One file (.pdf) 23:00 1st May 23:00 15th May 23:00 29th May
2020 2020 2020

Overall Task
Produce documentation and SQL code to create and query a database designed to fulfil the criteria
for a specific case study.

Scenario
Background
Young Volunteers, (YV), is a charity group that finds volunteers in the 15 – 20 years age range in the
UK to help in a variety of organisations. Young people are found when the charity approaches high
schools, colleges and youth clubs and recruit from those that express an interest.

Currently they store the data on the people interested in volunteering, along with the organisations
who require help and a list of places who are happy to help the charity find volunteers in an Access
database. They have found that they are no longer able to keep on top of the upkeep of the data
requirements using Access any longer and need a new system. This new system is to have a web
frontend but the only thing that you are required to provide is a working SQL database.

Current Working Practice

Scenario 1
A charity or company can approach YV and ask for one or more volunteers for a fixed term or on a
rolling basis. They may require people with general or specific skills, such as IT support or driving. The
person who has the job of liaising with that particular charity will search through the YV database and
look for suitable people. If there is no-one suitable on the YV system then see scenario 2.

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Scenario 2
When YV have a lack of suitable volunteers, they will approach schools, colleges and youth clubs and
visit to recruit young people. They can only approach those schools etc. that are already on their
“approved provider” list. There is a staff member allocated to each of these providers as the main
contact but each of the staff members may have more than one provider to look after. YV will talk to
potential volunteers and will gather information about each volunteer and store this in their system.
There is a requirement that only people who have been found on the list of approved “volunteer
providers” can be put into the database. A new volunteer cannot walk into the YV office and put
their name down as a volunteer.

Scenario 3
Every 3 months, YV will look at both the number of enterprises looking for volunteers and providers
on the approved list; they will analyse the data to ascertain whether they need to look for new
providers or if they can extend the number of charities they can help. When they find new providers,
such as a youth club or a charity, this information needs to be added to the system and a staff
member needs to be allocated as the contact point.

Task 1
Create an ERD, (entity relationship diagram), that shows the layout of your database.

The ERD must show the following:

 Entities with suitable names.

 Attribute names with data types and sizes where appropriate.
 Relationships between tables using Crow’s Foot notation.
 Primary and foreign keys must be identified.

It can be created using any suitable software such as Lucid Chart or Draw.io, however, hand drawn
ERDs will receive zero marks.

Create your database and populate it with suitable dummy data, minimum of 20 records per table.
Use a data generator such as mockaroo.com or generatedata.com. Provide the screenshots of the
code used to create and populate your tables as well as screenshots of the populated tables.

You can only use PostgreSQL to create your database. Databases that have been created using a
different DBMS will not be marked. You must use Crow’s Foot notation.

Task 2
SQL 1
 Write 5 basic queries on the database for Young Volunteers that demonstrate your
understanding of how a relational database stores data and how data is returned.
 Look at the scenarios above that show how YV work currently and make sure that your queries
can address the needs of the business.
 Provide the code that make up your queries and screenshots of the results. Screenshots MUST
be easily legible!

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What should you think about?

 We are looking for queries that you think would be the queries that are useful to Young
Volunteers.
 Queries such as listing all of the people working for YV are too basic. (Do not use SELECT *
FROM TABLE type queries).
 Think about the data stored in more than one table and how better information can be
obtained by joining two tables together.
 Read through the scenarios listed above and think what data is needed to fulfil these
scenarios.
 Put yourself in the place of a volunteer, a staff member or someone who is looking for
volunteers.
 Provide an explanation of why the query is useful to the business.

SQL 2
 Write 5 advanced queries that show a greater depth of understanding of relational databases.
 Again, look at the scenarios above and build your queries address the needs of the business.
You can expand on these scenarios if you consider that it will help YV run more efficiently.
 Provide the code that make up your queries and screenshots of the results.
 Provide an explanation of why the query is useful to the business.

What should you think about?

 Read the notes for the basic queries. These notes are valid as a starting point for the more
advanced queries.
 We are looking for joins of more than two tables.
 Look at improving the look of your query results.
 Use more advanced features such as aggregation.

What to submit
Task 1
A single PDF file with the code that creates and populates your database and has your ERD included.
Provide screenshots of the code output.

This file must be named UPXXXXXX_task1.pdf

Task 2
A single PDF file that shows the queries in plain text, (not screenshots), and screenshots of the
queries being run with the data returned for each query.

This file must be named UPXXXXXX_task2.pdf

Make sure that the queries are based on this case study.

Marking and Feedback

University regulations state that marks and feedback must be returned within 20 working days,
(approximately 4 weeks). We do not return some marks before others so all work has to be marked

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before we return anything. If marks are delayed you will be notified via Moodle with a date that the
marks and feedback are expected.

Feedback will be provided via 2 mechanisms:

A. The marks allocated and feedback for each submission will be released via Moodle and you
will be notified by email.
B. After 21 working days a summary of major issues that have been seen across all submissions
will be issues along with a model answer if appropriate.

Formative feedback sessions will be arrange around the consolidation week in February 2020 to assist
with coursework development. Dates to be confirmed.

Referencing and Plagiarism

The coursework should be your own work. We do encourage students to do research outside of the
module material provided but you must state where the information came from by properly
referencing the sources. Within the School of Computing your work must be referenced using the
Harvard APA V6 referencing system. See http://referencing.port.ac.uk/ for more information.
Microsoft Word has good inbuilt referencing functionality or other tools such as Mendeley can be
used.

If you use a source that you do not reference, you are at risk of being accused of plagiarism.

The University’s description of plagiarism is:

“Plagiarism is the act of using material which is not your own, without making clear reference to the
original author/producer.”

If we believe that this is the case you may be asked to attend an interview to discuss your work and
there may be disciplinary action taken as a result. See here for further information.

Anonymity
All coursework should be anonymous, therefore DO NOT put your name on your work. Your student
ID must be on each page in the footer.

Help
Students will always have questions about the module and the coursework. If you do not understand
anything, ASK! You will not be asking stupid questions. There is no such thing as a stupid question
when it comes to your education. We would rather you asked; it could be that the way something is
written or explained is not in the clearest way. Any questions can be raised in your practical sessions
or at the end of lectures or on the module forum.

You could always see if we are in our offices, however we all teach multiple modules and courses so
we can’t guarantee we will be there. Email is not the best way to ask questions; staff get so many
emails each day it could be that your question is not seen for a couple of days!

Finally
Many students begin to work on assignments in the last week before submission. This is far too late
and they end up rushing and, potentially, submitting work that is of a lower standard than they are
capable of. By starting in plenty of time you are able to ask questions and get feedback on your

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drafts. It is recommended that you start on the work once the topic is covered in a lecture. This will
give you plenty of time to develop and refine your work before submission.

Do not leave your submission to 5 minutes before the deadline in case there are issues with Moodle
accepting submissions. The date and time given for submission is the deadline, not the time your
work must be submitted!

This is a large module and it is highly likely that there are more than one module with similar
submission dates.

Marking Scheme
Task 1
ERD: 25 Marks
Marking Scheme Breakdown:
 0-5 Limited understanding shown of the design stage of database development.
Incorrect notation used
 6-10 Poor understanding shown of the design stage of database development.
Correct notation used but wrong symbols used.
 11-15 Mostly a good design with sensible entity names, attribute names and
datatypes and sizes but some weaknesses.
 16+ Excellent logical design. Identified all entities with the correct relationships.
Correct crow’s foot format used properly.

Code used to generate database and tables: 20

Task 2
5 marks per query
Marking Scheme Breakdown:
 3 marks for good functionality and correct syntax of each query
 2 marks for suitable query output

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