BCO2149 Database Systems

ECA Assignment 2, Semester 1 2011

Total Marks 45 Due:

Instructions: Students are required to attempt each question.

Question 1
(a)
You are required to develop an Entity Relationship diagram from the following information that
depicts the involvement of staff members and their association with research projects at a
particular university.
The diagram needs to display entities, their attributes where stated and their relationships with
other entities. For each relationship both the maximum and minimum cardinality must be displayed.
A university has many staff members and a staff member may be involved in many research
projects.
A research project must have at least one staff member assigned to it.
The time (days) a staff member works on a specific project must be recorded.
An individual research project is managed by one and one only staff member, but a staff member
may manage more than one research project.
A staff member works for one school only and a school has at least one staff member in it.
Each research project is assigned to a category. A category may be associated with many
research projects but an individual research project must be assigned to one category only.
The findings of a research paper may be presented at many at many conferences and a
conference must present the findings of at least one research project. The date at which a
research project is presented at conference must be recorded.
(b)
You are required to create an Entity Relationship diagram from the following scenario. The
scenario you are to model relates to athletes competing at athletic events.
The entity relationship diagram must display entities, their attributes and their relationship with
other entities. For each relationship both the maximum and minimum cardinality must be
displayed.
When an athlete competes at an athletics carnival their results are required to be maintained for
future reference.
An athlete is described by a unique competitor number, first name, surname, date of birth and
gender. During an athlete’s career they may belong to many clubs and a club may have many
athletes associated with it. But, during a particular season (year) an athlete may only represent one
particular club, but has the right to change clubs in any subsequent year (season). The ER model
must be able to identify the club an athlete represents in any particular year.
A club is represented by a unique club number, name, address, and phone number. For each
season one athlete within each club is chosen to be its captain. In any one season an athlete may
captain one particular club and a club must only have one assigned captain per season.
An athletics carnival is held on a particular date and at a specific location. A carnival is also
identified by a specific carnival number and the condition of the day is also recorded. For example
the condition could be either, wet, cold, hot, good, windy or dry. Each carnival is assigned to one
condition type but a condition type could be used to describe the state of many different carnivals.
A condition is described by a unique number, and a description.
Each carnival is held at a specific location and a location could be used for many carnivals.
Location is described by a location number, description and state.
At any carnival there are a number of events that take place. An event is represented by a unique
number, description, gender and age group. For example Boys Under 14 100M and Girls Under 16
High Jump. An event may be run at many different carnivals and a carnival must run at least one
event.
When an athlete competes in a particular event at a specific carnival their performance or result
must be recorded. Their placing and the distance or time they received must be recorded.
The current record holder for each event must be recorded. An athlete may hold the record for
many events and an event has only one record holder at any one time
(c)

A Real Estate Company has a number of branches in and around the suburbs of Melbourne. Each
branch is identified by the following attributes sales office Number (unique), Address and Phone
number.
Each branch is assigned one or more Employees. Each employee is identified by the following
attributes; EmpId(unique), Employee Name, Employee Address, Phone Number
An Employee may operate from more than one branch office. The date, start and end time for each
employee operating from a specific branch must be recorded.
Each of the branch offices is managed by one specific Employee and an Employee may mange
more than one branch office.
Each real estate branch lists a number of properties (at least one) for sale or rent. Attributes of a
Property are; PropertyNo(unique), Property Address, Description, Type (sale or rent).
Each Property can only be listed with one and only one branch.
Each Property could be owned by one or more owners.(must have at least one) Attributes of
representing an Owner are; OwnerId (unique), OwnerName ,OwnerAddress and Phone number.
An owner may own one or more Properties. For each property that an owner owns, an attribute
PercentageOwned is used to record the particular percentage that is owned by each specific
owner.
Each Real Estate branch uses Contractors to complete any maintenance work that may be
required to be undertaken on any of their listed properties. A contractor is identified by the following
attributes; ContractorNo (unique), ContactorName, ContractorName, ContractorPhone, and
Speciality.
A Contractor is assigned maintenance work by a specific real estate branch for a specific property.
A contractor may complete maintenance work on many properties and each specific property may
have lots of maintenance work done it.
For each maintenance assignment, the following information must be recorded; the assignment
date, the number of hours required to complete the assignment and the total cost. These attributes
must link back to the Property requiring the maintenance, the Contractor who completed the work
and the Real Estate branch that assigned the work.

( 5+7+5 = 17 marks)
Question 2
Transpose the following Entity Relationship diagram in a set of relational tables.
( 6 marks)

Nurse Department
Nurse_NO Staffs Depart_NO
Nurse_Name
Depart_Name
Date_of_Birth
Phone
Start_Date

Supervises

Employs

Start_Time End_Time
Operation Date Op_Room
Patient Doctor

Patient_NO Operates Doctor_NO

Patient_Name Doctor_Name
Date_of_Birth Office_NO
Address Phone

Supports

Has Year
Operation Grade

Operation_NO
Op_Name
Duration
Cost Qualification
Qual_Code
Qual_Name

Question 3
(a)

Convert the following relational tables into an Entity Relationship diagram, showing all
attributes and highlighting the primary keys. Only the maximum cardinality is required to be
displayed.

Employee (EmpNo, EmpName, EmpAddress, DeptNofk, SupervisorNo)

Project (ProjectNo, ProjectName, Budget, CategoryNOfk)
WorksOn (EmpNo, ProjectNo, TimeSpent)
Department (DeptNo, DeptName, Location, ManagerNOfk)
Category (CategoryNO, CategoryName)
Tasks ( TasksNO, Description, Number of Employees)
Assigned ( ProjectNO, TaskNO)
An Employee works in a department and they are assigned to projects. Each employee has a
supervisor (SupervisorNo) who is another employee. An employee may manage many
departments but a department is only managed by one employee. A project is assigned to one
category only but a category may be assigned many projects. Each project is contains at least one
task and a task could be used in many projects.

(b)
What changes would have to be made to the ER diagram if an employee is assigned to project via
a task rather than simply to a project only. The time spent on a task within a project is to be
recorded. An employee may work on many tasks and a must have at least one employee assigned
to it. Students are required to re draw their previous ER diagram.
(5+ 2 = 7 marks)
Question 4
Casual Employee Placement (CEP) is a agency that places temporary workers in companies.
CEP's manager gives you the following description of the business:
 CEP has a file of candidates who are willing to work.
 If the candidate has worked before, that candidate has a specific job history. (Naturally, no
job history exists if the candidate has never worked for the agency.) Each time the
candidate works, one additional job history record is created.
 Each candidate may have earned several qualifications. Each qualification may be earned
by more than one candidate. (For example, it is possible for more than one candidate to
have earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree or a Microsoft Network
Certification. And clearly, a candidate may have earned both a BBA and a Microsoft
Network Certification.)
 CEP offers courses to help candidates improve their qualifications.
 Every course develops one specific qualification; however, CEP does not offer a course for
every qualification. Some qualifications have multiple courses that develop that
qualification.
 Some courses cover advanced topics that require specific qualifications as prerequisites.
Some courses cover basic topics that do not require any prerequisite qualifications. A
course can have several prerequisites. A qualification can be a prerequisite for more than
one course.
 Courses are taught during training sessions. A training session is the presentation of a
single course. Over time, CEP will offer many training sessions for each course; however,
new courses may not have any training sessions scheduled right away.
 Candidates can pay a fee to attend a training session. A training session can accommodate
several candidates, although new training sessions will not have any candidates registered
at first.
 CEP also has a list of companies that request temporaries.
 Each time a company requests a temporary employee, CEP makes an entry in the
Openings folder. That folder contains an opening number, a company name, required
qualifications, a starting date, an anticipated ending date, and hourly pay.
 Each opening requires only one specific or main qualification.
 When a candidate matches the qualification, the job is assigned, and an entry is made in
the Placement Record folder. That folder contains an opening number, a candidate
number, the total hours worked, etc. In addition, an entry is made in the job history for the
candidate.
 An opening can be filled by many candidates, and a candidate can fill many openings.
 CEP uses special codes to describe a candidate's qualifications for an opening. The list of
codes is shown in the table below

CEP's management wants to keep track of the following entities:

COMPANY, OPENING, QUALIFICATION, CANDIDATE, JOB-HISTORY, PLACEMENT,
COURSE, and SESSION.

Instructions:
Based on the above information, you are required to develop an Entity Relationship model that
best represents the operations of the agency.
(15 marks)