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A Database Design & Development Report for DBL Ltd

Unit 10: Database Design & Development

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Student Declaration
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Introduction

A database plays an important role in the running, organising and performance of a

business organisation. It stores and provides the important information when the
business requires. It also helps to make the running of a business easier and effective.
DBL Ltd is a consumer goods provider. The company is looking for creating an advance
database to increase its organisational performances. And, it has contacted Rower
Consulting for the creation of the database application. The author is the Junior
Database Developer of Rowan Consulting. The manager of the company has appointed
the junior database developer to collect and use the required systems to design,
prepare and implement the database system. The author has contacted the
stakeholders to understand their wants and demands. Some research has been done to
realise the requirements of such a database which will be helpful for the users of the
database. The author has decided to use MS Access as the tool for the database
design. Then the interrelated tables has been created. Next comes the process of
designing the interface and output. The author also has to set the data validation
system, queries, system security and maintenance of the database. After implementing
the system, the author has done the testing to make sure the system is working
properly. At last, a user manual has been created for the end users to make it easier for
them. The evidences of all the activities have been provided in the form of screenshots
with this report.
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Design: Use an appropriate design tool to design a relational database system for
a substantial problem (LO1)

The brief schema for planned database for DBL has been provided below:
Customer - (CustomerID (PK), FirstName, LastName, DOB, email, PhoneNo,
Address, Postcode)
Product - (ProductID (PK), produdtName, price, stocklimit, description)
Orders - (OrderID (PK), OrderDate, deliveryDate, PaymentType,CustomerType,
Branch)
OrderItem - (OrderItemID (PK), OrderID, ProductID)

Primary Key
A primary key is used to ensure that the data in each column is unique. It gives a record
to the relational database table a distinct identity. It makes the combination of Not Null
and UNIQUE requirements. The value of is irreversible.
The Primary Key attribute for each entity
Customer ----------- CustomerID
Orders ----------------- OrderID
Order Item ----------------- OrderItemID
Product ----------------- ProductID
Foreign key
A foreign key in database is a field in an interactive table that matches the primary key
column of another table. The function of primary key is to make the data available to
another table (Yasar, 2022).

ERD
ERD means the Entity Relationship Diagram. It indicates the graphical representation of
data which shows the relations among the objects, events, people or places. It is the
process or idea of the starting point for a database (Biscobing, 2019). It also helps to set
the requirements for creating an information system.
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Components of an ERD
The main components of an ERD are the Entities, Attributes or Fields and
Relationships.

An entity can be an object, place, event or a person who or which stores data in a
database. It is represented in a rectangle form in a relationship diagram.

The figure above shows the entity where an employee works for a company. Here the
person and the company are the entity.
Attribute refers to the name or thing which is the data characteristics of an entity or data
elements.
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For example, the above figure shows the person as the entity and it has different types
of data which are related to the entity. The data types are the attributes for the entity.
Relationship describes the relation between two entities and represented in a diamond
shape. As it is shown in the figure for entities. The two entities – Employee and
Company are related by the relationship is work. The employee works for the Company.
Here the term ‘work for’ is the relationship between these two entities. Relationships are
three in types – One to one, One to many and Many to many (tutorialspoint, 2023).
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ERD

The figure above shows different types of relationship. It has been created with the help
of Lucid Chart. It has four entities – Customers, Orders, Product and OrderItem.
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Normalisation
Data normalisation is the process of designing data to facilitate a more cohesive form of
data entry with the target of cleaning of data. It recognises the removing of unstructured
data or redundant the data to enable more logical data storing process. The main goal
of normalisation is to achieve the standard of data format across the entire system of an
organisation. It is achieved by setting up the default normalisation rules which will
ensure same data standard in the whole database of an organisation.
There are three most common and widely used normalisation forms – First Normal
Form (1NF), Second Normal Form (2NF), and Third Normal Form (3 NF)

Database Normalisation
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The process of Normalisation

The process of normalisation aims at avoiding anomalies in a database. Anomalies
refer to the problems which is the outcome of performing operation on the database
table. There are three main types of anomalies - Insertion Anomaly, Deletion Anomaly
and Updation Anomaly
Insertion anomaly occurs when the attribute is not on the table and the data cannot be
inserted into the database. The deletion anomaly happens when an unwanted data
becomes the cause of the deletion of a required data. Updation anomaly is the cause of
the failure of an updating process of a single data which leads to the updating
requirements. Normalisation ensures the prevention of such issues in a database.
First normalisation (1NF) is the most basic form which ensures that there are no
repetition of entries in a dataset. It demands every cells to have only one single value
and the uniqueness of the record.
The second normalisation (2NF) is built on the 1 NF aims at ensuring that there are no
repetition entries and requires adherence to the 1NF and Primary Key.
The third normal for (3NF) requires the data to be adhere to the 2NF requirements and
dependent on the primary key.
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User Interface Design

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Evaluation of Design
The aim of the interface design is to make it easier to use for the customers as well as
meet the requirements set by the client. The author has given importance on making the
interface user friendly. A user can start navigating from the welcome page. This page
has the buttons for customer, product and order. So, one can easily navigate to the
intended page.
After navigating to the required page, a user will be able to add, delete or edit data as
needed. The buttons on the very page will allow a user to go forward and backward
within the dataset for getting the next or previous information. There are some validation
rules in the database which will guide the user to insert right information to get accurate
data. Moreover, it will ensure that the only correct data will be inserted into the
database.
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Implementation: Develop a fully functional relational database system, based on

existing system design (LO2)

The author has developed the database system with required fields. The screenshots of
the tables, Forms and Queries have been given below.

Tables: this screen shot from view customer

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Forms:
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Queries: Form of design

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Form of view
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Testing: Test the System Against User and System Requirements (LO3)

Tester name: Hosham Gamaleldin Gasir

Date: 23/10/2023
Table: Test Plan
Test Purpose: Test Data: Expected Actual Pass/Fail:
No: Result: Result:
01 Add new Jack Customer Customer pass
record to Johns date needs data needs
the 5/7/2023 to add to the to be added
customer Male customer to the
table Mr table customer
[email protected] table
FE54 6FE
(4516)
London 45164646546
02 Add new 9/10/2023 Order needs Order Pass
record to Delivery to be added Added to
the order date10/10/2023 to Order Order table
date Order table online table
Order type credit card
03 Add new Apple needs to be Product Product Pass
record to added needs to be added to
the added to product
product product table
table table
04 Delete Sara Delete Customer Pass
record Johnson customer record
from the female record from deleted
table Mrs the table
09/05/2023
(4544) 6444545
[email protected]
SW45 4SW

05 Edit record Price of milk need to Price Price Pass

to the be changed from £1.00 updated changed
product to £1.50
table

06 Delete Apple The product The product Pass

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record £1.00 record record has

from the Tesco needs to be been
product 100 deleted deleted
table Fruit Product
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Evaluation of Implementing and Testing

The author has constantly gone through trying and testing the database while preparing
it. The data has been inserted into the designated table and the result has been
analysed to ensure the system has been working according to the expectation. The
buttons have been deployed to make it easier for the users to navigate through the
database system.
The prime importance has been given on the ease of use. The appearance, colour and
fonts have been selected bearing in mind that some users may require such design
because of their limitation in accessibility. There are some rules and masks in operation
to make sure the input of accurate data in the system.
The testing has shown that the database is working according to the requirements of
the client. The input of data is showing the expected results. The addition, deletion and
edition are working properly. It is easy to navigate through the database. The author has
made some recommendation such as using user name and password to access the
database. It will prevent unauthorised access. The Company will need to take all
necessary steps to ensure the security of the database.
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Maintenance: Produce technical and user documentation (LO4)

The technical and user documents has been provided into the Appendix
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References

Biscobing, J. (2019) What is entity relationship diagram (ERD)?: Definition from

TechTarget, Data Management. Available at:
https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/entity-relationship-
diagram-ERD. (Accessed: 26 October 2023).

Chris, K. (2023) Database normalization – normal forms 1NF 2NF 3NF table examples,
freeCodeCamp.org. Available at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/database-
normalization-1nf-2nf-3nf-table-examples/ (Accessed: 27 October, 2023).

Kidd, C. (2022) Data Normalization explained: How to normalize data, Splunk. Available
at: https://www.splunk.com/en_us/blog/learn/data-normalization.html (Accessed:
02 November 2023).

tutorialspoint (2023) What are the components of ER diagrams in DBMS?, Online

Tutorials, Courses, and eBooks Library. Available at:
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/what-are-the-components-of-er-diagrams-in-dbms
(Accessed: 28 October 2023).

Yasar, K. (2022) What is a primary key? - definition from whatis.com, Data

Management. Available at:
https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/primary-key
(Accessed: 25 October 2023).
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Appendix:

DBL Database

Version: 1.0

Technical Document

Revision History
Date Version Description Author
07.10.2023 0.1 DBL Technical Document Hosham Gamaleldin Gasir
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Table of Content
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Introduction

The aim of the creation of the DBL Database project is to modernize the database of
the company which will ensure the improvement in the data storage and data access
procedure. The new database will provide efficiency in reporting and retrieving data
from the online activities of the users of the company website.

System Overview

Acronyms and Abbreviations

Points of Contact

Role Name Email Telephone

Data Manager David Lamy [email protected] +447295251317

Application Hosham [email protected] +447867475865

Developer

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System Architecture

The DBL system has been developed as a standalone application with four tables
and four forms. The DBL Database has been developed in MS ACCESS. The figure
below depicts the architecture of the DBL Application for the future running of the
webserver.

Figure 1: Architecture Diagram

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2.1 Database and Application Software Utilities

Table 1: Database Software Utilities

2 .1 Database Properties and Relationships

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4
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Database Specifications
Physical Design

Below is the entity relationship diagram, which shows the physical design of the
database

Figure 2. Entity relationship diagram

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Physical Structure
Link to the database specifications
Physical structure of the database, with the tables, relationships and description of
the tables and fields.

Figure 3: Customer table

Product Table

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Order table

OrderItem

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User Manual for DBL Database

How to add a new customer

Open the customer form – Do not enter customer ID as it will be generated
automatically by the system. Select Title from the list, enter First Name, Surname.
Then select Gender – M for male and F for Female.
Enter DoB or use the calendar, enter the first line of the address, Post Code,
Telephone Number with the area code, enter email. Press the Next button and it will
insert the data into the Customer Table.

How to Edit /Delete a customer details

Open the customer form, find out the customer, Edit or Delete the required
information and press ‘Next Customer’ Button. The changes will be saved in the
database.
How to Add a new Product
Open the Product form, insert the product name, price, supplier and product
description. Then press the ‘Next Product’ button. The data will be saved in the
database.
How to Edit/Delete a Product
Open the Product form and find the product. Edit or Delete the required data and
press ‘Next Product’ button. The changes will be saved to the database.