February, 2008

What are the costs to consider in Data Base Approach?

Specialized personnel - One should administer the data’s in order to have a fully secured user/information flow and database updates in given time.
Need for explicit backup – backing up data’s is one important thing in an organization to avoid data loss. One should always take safety precautions because like humans, computers also have some malfunctions at times.
Interference with shared data – In data sharing one should be aware of what data’s and who are the users capable of viewing such information.
Organizational Conflict – In an organization we share somewhat the same data or different data as a matter of fact this could result in a very unsatisfying and confusing role in the organization. That’s why we have the user privileges in order to prevent one user in using/viewing relevant information he/she is not allowed to view so.

What are the benefits of Database Approach?

The benefits of database approach is to
1. reduce redundancy of information
Data’s are being made simple and complex, we don’t have to input as many data’s which can only result in overloaded space in computer hard disk/ memory.
2. Consistent data flow
Once the data’s are being analyzed in sequence, once can easily identify the flow of information and hence, results will come in reliable output.
3. Integration of data
Incorporating of data’s in tables should result in a highly assimilation of information.
4. Security and User privileges
Protection of data’s from unwanted users and giving user’s rights to what level they are to use the application.
5. Ease of application development.
It is a more comfortable workspace for the relevance of its factual purpose.

Why do we need to consider Database Approach?

Because it emphasizes the integration and sharing of data across the organization. We have two types of Database Approach the Process Design and the Data Driven Design.
The Process Design requires a top level analysis to process the data’s. One should first consider a complete analysis of how the design would end up like then one would analyze the datum into logical order then there goes the implementation.
As for Data Driven Design, unlike the Process design which is more likely the analysis of breaking down data’s the Data-Driven Design come in full pack of making a database design in chronological order, we process data’s and break them down into smaller units/parts, we will discuss more about this in normalization.

Components of the Database Environment

Human
Data Administrators – the function of data administrators is to manage or have a direct control of the database.
System Developers – these are the people who is responsible for the development the computer applications breaking down those data’s into smaller steps and computer codes transferring them for a much more comfortable and understandable manner for end users.
End Users – the users of the system/application.

Machine
User Interface – This is the design or how the computer application looks like. It is a much easy and understandable way for end users to interact and to deploy the system.
Application Programs – This is the heart and mind of the computer application of the organization. Employs the application’s task users would want to do with the system.

Database
Repository – Centralized knowledge base containing all data definitions screen and report format and definitions of other organizations and system components.
Database Management System – Commercial software system used to create, maintain and provide controlled access to the database repository.
Database – A collection of logically related data to meet the information needs of multiple users in an organization.

Database Management part 1

In every organization there are these aspects that are of relevant to what the organization is all about, these are called information needs. These pieces of information are called data. Organizations store data on various media, at of different format. Like for example a copy of an employees resume, there are different ways of how we can be able to store this information, we can store it in a filing cabinet or we can store it in an electronic spreadsheets or in database.

e.g
We have an employee system, What are the things we need to consider for an employee system? First we have the employee name, personal profile like place of birth, age, loc etc. These pieces of information that we have gathered that is of importance to the organization are called data and in order to have a consistent information flow that we have to create a database, we need to save this data so it can be manageable to users of the certain organization, like for example add, edit, delete, update records from the table. To manage databases, you need database management systems (DBMS). A DBMS is a program that is capable of doing the like.

Introduction

Before starting let us first discuss a brief introduction about database management but first you must need to be familiarized with some terminologies that can be useful throughout our study about RDBMS.

Basic Terminologies:
Data – are details of information pertaining to objects, events or people.
Information – is the data that has been processed and is presented in form suitable for human interpretation.
Process – the manipulation, distribution, storage and acquisition of data’s.
Database - is the structured collection of data’s in a computer system.
Database Management System (DBMS) - Commercial software system used to create, maintain and provide controlled access to the database and repository.
Application Programs – Are used to create and maintain the database and provide information to users.
Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) - is the relationship among data’s stored in a system.

Throughout this study we will be focusing on Relational Database Management System using Oracle/SQL as our backend.