Database Planning,

Design,
and Administration
Transparencies

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Software Depression

 The software industry has indeed witnessed a significant

increase in the production of software applications over the
last few decades. With this growth comes the need for
constant maintenance.
 Maintenance tasks such as correcting faults/ errors, implementing new user
requirements, and modifying software to run on new or upgraded platforms are
crucial for keeping software applications functional and relevant in an ever-
changing technological landscape.
 However, the effort and resources required for maintenance can indeed
become overwhelming, particularly as software systems become more
complex and interdependent.

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Software Depression

 As a result, many major software projects were

 late,
 over budget,
 unreliable,
 difficult to maintain,
 performed poorly.

 In late 1960s, led to ‘software crisis’, now refer to as the ‘software

depression’.

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Software Depression

 Major reasons for failure of software projects includes:

- lack of a complete requirements specification;
- lack of appropriate development methodology;
- poor breakdown of design into manageable components.

 Structured approach to development was proposed called

Information Systems Lifecycle (ISLC).

© Pearson Education Limited 1995, 2005

Information System

Resources that enable collection, management, control, and

distribution of information throughout an organization.

 Database is fundamental component of IS, and its

development/usage should be viewed from perspective of the wider
requirements of the organization.

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 Database System
Development Lifecycle

1- Database planning 6- Application design

2- System definition 7- Prototyping (optional)
3- Requirements collection 8- Implementation
and analysis
4- Database design 9- Data conversion and
loading
5- DBMS selection 10Testing
(optional) 6

© Pearson Education Limited 1995, 2005

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1- Database Planning

 Management activities that allow stages

of database system development
lifecycle to be realized as efficiently and
effectively as possible.

 Must be integrated with overall IS strategy of the

organization.

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Database Planning – Mission
Statement

 Mission statement for the database project defines major aims

of database application.

 Those driving database project normally define the mission

statement.

 Mission statement helps clarify purpose of the database

project and provides clearer path towards the efficient and
effective creation of required database system.

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Database Planning – Mission
Statement
 Mission statement of a University database
system could be:
"Our mission is to support the academic and administrative functions of the
university by providing a secure, efficient, and user-friendly database system.
We aim to facilitate seamless access to accurate and up-to-date information for
students, faculty, staff, and administrators, thereby enhancing decision-making,
fostering collaboration, and promoting academic excellence. Our commitment
lies in maintaining the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of university
data while continuously improving the functionality and usability of the database
system to meet the evolving needs of our university community."

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Database Planning – Mission
Objectives

 Once mission statement is defined, mission objectives

are defined.

 Each objective should identify a particular task that

the database must support.

 May be accompanied by some additional information

that specifies the work to be done, the resources with
which to do it, and the money to pay for it all.

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Database Planning

 Database planning should also include development of

standards that govern:
 how data will be collected,
 Data Collection Standards

 how the format should be specified,

 Data Format

 what necessary documentation will be needed,

 Specifications Documentation Requirements

 how design and implementation should proceed.

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 Design and Implementation Guidelines:
2- System Definition

 Describes scope and limitations of database system and

the major user views.

 User view defines what is required of a database

system from perspective of:
 a particular job role (such as Manager or
Supervisor) or
 enterprise application area (such as marketing,
personnel, or stock control).
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System Definition

 Database application may have one or more user views.

 Identifying user views helps ensure that no major users

of the database are forgotten when developing
requirements for new system.

 User views also help in development of complex

database system allowing requirements to be broken
down into manageable pieces.
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Representation of a Database System with
Multiple User Views

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3- Requirements Collection and
Analysis

 Process of collecting and analyzing

information about the part of
organization to be supported by the
database system, and using this
information to identify users’
requirements of new system.

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Requirements Collection and
Analysis

 Information is gathered for each major user view

including:
a description of data used or generated;
 details of how data is to be used/generated;
 any additional requirements for new database system.

 Information is analyzed to identify requirements to be

included in new database system. Described in the
requirements specification.
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Requirements Collection and
Analysis

 Another important activity is deciding how to manage

the requirements for a database system with multiple
user views.
 Three main approaches:
 centralized approach;
 view integration approach;
 combination of both approaches.

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Requirements Collection and
Analysis

 Centralized approach
 Requirements for each user view are merged into a
single set of requirements.
 A data model is created representing all user views
during the database design stage.

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Centralized Approach to Managing Multiple
User Views

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Requirements Collection and
Analysis

 View integration approach

 Requirements for each user view remain as separate
lists.
 Data models representing each user view are
created and then merged later during the database
design stage.

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© Pearson Education Limited 1995, 2005

Requirements Collection and
Analysis

 Data model representing single user view (or a subset of

all user views) is called a local data model.

 Each model includes diagrams and documentation

describing requirements for one or more but not all user
views of database.
 Local data models are then merged at a later stage
during database design to produce a global data model,
which represents all user views for the database.
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© Pearson Education Limited 1995, 2005

View Integration Approach to Managing
Multiple User Views

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4- Database Design

 Process of creating a design for a

database that will support the
enterprise’s mission statement and
mission objectives for the required
database system.

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© Pearson Education Limited 1995, 2005

Database Design

 Main approaches include:

 Top-down
 This approach starts with the development of data models that contain a few
high-level entities and relationships and then applies successive top-down
refinements to identify lower-level entities, relationships, and the associated
attributes. The top-down approach is illustrated using the concepts of the
Entity-Relationship (ER) model, beginning with the identification of entities and
relationships between the entities, which are of interest to the organization.
 Bottom-up
 The bottom-up approach begins at the fundamental level of
attributes (that is, properties of entities and relationships), which
through analysis of the associations between attributes are grouped
into relations that represent types of entities and relationships 25

between entities.
Database Design

 Main approaches include:

 Inside-out

 The inside-out approach is related to the bottom-up

approach, but differs by first identifying a set of major
entities and then spreading out to consider other entities,
relationships, and attributes associated with those first
identified.
 Mixed

 The mixed strategy approach uses both the bottom-up

and top-down approach for various parts of the model
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Database Design

 Main purposes of data modeling include:

 to assist in understanding the meaning (semantics)
of the data;
 tofacilitate communication about the information
requirements.

 Building data model requires answering questions

about entities, relationships, and attributes.

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Database Design

 A data model ensures we understand:

- each user’s perspective of the data;
- nature of the data itself, independent of its physical
representations;
- use of data across user views.

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Criteria to Produce an Optimal
Data Model

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Database Design

 Three phases of database design:

 Conceptual database design

 Logical database design
 Physical database design.

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Conceptual Database Design

 Objective: Define the high-level structure and relationships of

the database without considering implementation details.
 Example: In this phase, we identify the main entities and
their relationships. For a university system, entities might
include students, courses, professors, departments, and
enrollment. Relationships might include a student enrolling in
courses, professors teaching courses, departments offering
courses, etc.
 Conceptual data model is source of information for
logical design phase.

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Logical Database Design

 Objective: Translate the conceptual design into a model that

can be implemented in a specific database management
system (DBMS) without considering physical storage
constraints.
 Example: In this phase, we define tables, attributes, primary
and foreign keys, and normalization to remove redundancy
and ensure data integrity. For example, we might have tables
for Students, Courses, Professors, and Departments, with
appropriate attributes and relationships defined through keys.
 Conceptual data model is refined and
mapped on to a logical data model.

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Physical Database Design

 Objective: Implement the logical design on a specific DBMS

considering storage structures, indexing, and performance
optimization.
 Example: In this phase, we define data types, indexing
strategies, partitioning, and storage allocation. For instance, we
might choose to store data in tables using specific data types
optimized for storage efficiency and define indexes on frequently
queried attributes for faster retrieval.
 Tailored to a specific DBMS system.

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5- DBMS Selection

 Selection of an appropriate DBMS to support the

database system.
 Undertaken at any time prior to logical design
provided sufficient information is available regarding
system requirements.
 Main steps to selecting a DBMS:
 define Terms of Reference of study;
 Clearly outline the purpose, scope, and
requirements of the study to guide the
selection process.
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5- DBMS Selection

 shortlist two or three products;

 Conduct market research and gather information about various DBMS
products available in the market.

 evaluate products;
 Compare the features and capabilities of each DBMS against the
defined requirements.

 recommend selection and produce report.

 Based on the evaluation results, make a recommendation for the
preferred DBMS.

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DBMS Evaluation Features

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DBMS Evaluation Features

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Example - Evaluation of DBMS
Product

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6- Application Design

 Design of user interface and application

programs that use and process the
database.

 Database design and application design

are parallel activities.

 Includes two important activities:

 transaction design;
 user interface design.
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Application Design - Transactions

 An action, or series of actions, carried out by a single

user or application program, which accesses or
changes content of the database.

 Should define and document the high-level

characteristics of the transactions required.

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Application Design - Transactions

 Important characteristics of transactions:

 data to be used by the transaction;
 functional characteristics of the transaction;
 output of the transaction;
 importance to the users;
 expected rate of usage.

 Three main types of transactions: retrieval, update,

and mixed.

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7- Prototyping

 Building working model of a database

system.

 Purpose
 to identify features of a system that work well, or
are inadequate;
 to suggest improvements or even new features;
 to clarify the users’ requirements;
 to evaluate feasibility of a particular system
design.
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7- Prototyping

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8- Implementation

 Physical realization of the database and application designs.

 Use DDL to create database schemas and empty database files.
 Use DDL to create any specified user views.
 Use 3GL or 4GL to create the application programs. This will
include the database transactions implemented using the DML,
possibly embedded in a host programming language.

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9- Data Conversion and Loading

 Transferring any existing data into new database and

converting any existing applications to run on new database.

 Only required when new database system is replacing an old

system.
 DBMS normally has utility that loads existing files into new
database.
 May be possible to convert and use application programs
from old system for use by new system.

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10- Testing

 Process of running the database system with intent of

finding errors.

 Use carefully planned test strategies and realistic data.

 Testing cannot show absence of faults; it can show only that
software faults are present.
 Demonstrates that database and application programs
appear to be working according to requirements.

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11- Operational Maintenance

 Process of monitoring and maintaining database

system following installation.

 Monitoring performance of system.

 if performance falls, may require tuning or reorganization
of the database.
 Maintaining and upgrading database application (when
required).
 Incorporating new requirements into database
application.

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CASE Tools

 CASE (Computer-Aided Software Engineering) tools are

software applications used by software developers, analysts,
and engineers to automate or assist in the various stages of
the software development lifecycle. These tools provide
support for tasks such as requirements gathering, design,
implementation, testing, and maintenance of software
systems.
 Provide following benefits:
 Standards;
 Integration;
 Support for standard methods;
 Consistency;
 Automation . 48
Data Administration and Database
Administration

 The Data Administrator (DA) and Database Administrator (DBA) are

responsible for managing and controlling the company data and company
database, respectively.

 DA is more concerned with early stages of database system development

lifecycle and DBA is more concerned with later stages.

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Data Administration

 Management of data resource including:

 database planning,
 development and maintenance of standards, policies and procedures, and
conceptual and logical database design.

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Database Administration

 Management of physical realization of a database system including:

 physical database design and implementation,
 setting security and integrity controls,


monitoring system performance, and reorganizing the database.

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