Objective:

The assignment constitutes of the module mark. Assessment focuses on design and research issues related to Database Management Systems. Each student submits a detailed report as per the task specifications through Moodle.

The assignment has two sections (Part A and Part B) focusing on advanced database concepts: Part A focuses on analysis of key factors of database systems. In part B you are required to write a scholarly academic article based on critical engagement with work done in Part-A.

Outcome:

1. Evaluate the role of conceptual modeling in the development of database systems and apply the entity-relationship modeling approach to a realistic scenario

2. Apply the essential concepts of relational databases, (including keys, normalization and referential integrity) to sample data sets and demonstrate best practice in the development of an appropriate and effective database system

3. Select and apply appropriate techniques involved in database administration

4. Critically evaluate security issues relating to database management systems and propose appropriate strategies to address security problems

Part A

Scenario:

Aaliya Institute of Management and Technology (AIMT) conducts courses to award Bachelors and Masters Degree programmes in various specializations. It has a well-established manual system to manage almost all the day to day business of an academic institute and is inclined to proceed with automation of all the process. AIMT has a Dean and few Associate and Assistant Deans to assist the Dean in academic matters. It has many departments and each department can offer different programmes. Each department is chaired by a Head of the Department (HoD). Further, each department is identified with a unique ID, department name, and employee_ID of the person who is heading the department. Within a department, each Programme is managed by a Programme Manager (PM), who in turn reports to the HoD.

Each department offers a bunch of courses spread across different programmes which necessitates the need of interaction between the PMs and HoD during allotment of modules to teaching staff. A module to be offered can have multiple sessions and each module is identified by a unique module code, module name and number of credit hours. Each teaching faculty is allocated with a teaching load of minimum of 18 credits. If the module that is offered belong to Master's level, then one credit load is considered to be equal to one and a half credit.

In order to be familiar with the responsibilities of HoDs, AIMT has decided to bring in some changes at the administrative level by introducing one or more Assistant HoDs who can assist the HoD in overall functioning of the department. Existing staff members instead of directly reporting to HoD, will now be directly reporting to one of the Assistant HoDs. After the introduction of Assistant HoDs, the teaching work load of staff who are serving as Assistant HoDs has been reduced to 10 credits and that of the PMs also.

It is to be noted that Dean, Associate/Assistant Dean, HoD, PM, teaching staff such as Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Lecturer are all employees and every employee is identified with a unique ID, name, gender, date of birth, designation, department to which he/she belongs, skills of the faculty.

Propose a conceptual model after an in-depth research on AIMT operations and processes. In order to come up with an appropriate design/solution, you must study the requirements, issues and best practices in this problem context. You can make relevant assumptions required to formulate business rules, security, administration and modelling.

Based on the above information execute Task 2, 3, 4 and Task 5. You may have to make additional assumptions to execute the above tasks.

Task 1:

Submit a work proposal, which must include:

- Understanding of deliverables - a detailed description of deliverables.

- General overview of the given tasks - (Part A and Part-B) - initial understanding of solution to all tasks with timeline to complete them and identification of literature resources. (For more clarity, please refer to criteria of evaluating the work proposal given on the last page of this assignment).

Task 2:

Design an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) to model the above scenario. Identify the different entities and attributes of each entity. Suggest and justify the choice of relationship and cardinality of the relationship. State the assumptions (if any) made by you to develop the ERD based on your research. Provide detailed analysis and justification for the selection of entities and attributes based on your research.

Task 3:

Derive a set of relational tables from the ER diagram (Task 2), using appropriate choices for the table attributes. List the integrity rules and business rules, which you would recommend to ensure the quality of data. Indicate all necessary key constraints. Critically analyze the constraints and business rules based on your study of the AIMT.

Task 4:

Outline the kinds of anomalies that can arise in the scenario given above by using un-normalized tables. Show how the table created in task 2 could be re-organized into separate tables to avoid anomalies (Decompose the table structures to a set of 3NF tables).

Task 5: As a database administrator identification of specific roles for users, authentication policy, storage management and database recovery are critical. The efficiency and complexity of database administration depends on the identified strategy and tools. Propose and critically review user management, backup/recovery strategy, storage management/techniques formulated for the system discussed in Task 1-3.

Part B

Write a research article in IEEE Format describing the solution to the scenario given in Part-A. The research article can be approximately 2500 words.

Present the research article using a poster presentation covering the following aspects of research:

- Problem specification, importance of research and research questions
- Theoretical framework
- Rigor of literature review
- Methods or empirical analysis techniques;
- Key findings and conclusions;

As a Post Graduate student, you are required to spend time in research and study. Apply the research skills (such as ability to formulate research questions; technical and analytical skills to solve those questions, ability to communicate results) to prepare your article. It is expected that a Post Graduate student demonstrates the research abilities to expand his/her knowledge on latest database technology. Importantly, to achieve the above goal, you are expected to learn with much greater independence and need to do a significant background reading on the chosen topic. The template (Microsoft word file) for the article will be made available on the Moodle soon.

The date, venue and specifications of the poster presentation will be communicated to you. No marks will be awarded if poster presentation is not done.

Guidelines

Follow the guidelines mentioned below for your assignment.

i. Students are expected to do a critical analysis of the tasks and present their analysis by drawing on relevant theoretical concepts. Marks will be awarded based on the ability of students to undertake the task in a logical manner by drawing on appropriate concepts and theoretical frameworks/literatures.

ii. Report should have a Title Page. Title Page should contain the following information.

a. Assignment Name

b. Student name

c. Student ID

iii. It should have Table of Contents.

iv. Use page numbers.

v. Assignment should be typed in your own words using Times New Roman font.

vi. Use Diagrams to explain in detail.

vii. Use suitable notations in your diagrams.

viii. Use appropriate SQL syntax wherever applicable.

ix. Copy paste from the Internet is strictly not acceptable.

x. References should be included in the last page and literature under pinning is needed at the point of explaining the concept.

xi. Attach the evidences (if any).

The purpose of assignment is to do some research work so you can consult books in Library or use internet or computer magazines or any other source. We are obliged to establish assessment criteria and then mark you upon how well (or otherwise) you meet those criteria. In turn, our assessment of you will be scrutinized by the external examiners, so we must be able to defend the marks we award. We will be far more impressed by a student who demonstrates their active participation, interest and understanding of the module subject matter than by a meticulously presented submission.