INFORMATION AND INFORMATION AND DATABASESDATABASES

Part 1

LEARNING OBJECTIVES• The importance of high-quality information and issues involved in managing business data.

• Advantages of the Database approach.• Data Modeling and Database Design with Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)

• How organizations can maximize their strategic potential with databases : Data Warehouse, Data Marts, Data Mining, Business Intelligence

Levels, Formats & Granularities of Information

Information Type: Transactional And Analytical

Information Quality• Business decisions are only as good as the quality of the information used to make the decisions

• Characteristics of High-quality Information• Accurate• Complete• Consistent• Unique• Timely

Information Quality

Information QualityLow Quality Information Example

The Costs Of Using Low-quality Information• The four primary sources of low quality

information include

1. Customers intentionally enter inaccurate information to protect their privacy

2. Different entry standards and formats

3. Operators enter abbreviated or erroneous information by accident or to save time

4. Third party and external information contains inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and errors

The Costs Of Using Low-quality Information . . .• Potential business effects resulting from low quality information include• Inability to accurately track customers• Difficulty identifying valuable customers• Inability to identify selling opportunities• Marketing to nonexistent customers• Difficulty tracking revenue• Inability to build strong customer relationships

The Benefits Of Good Information • High quality information can significantly improve the chances of making a good decision

• Good decisions can directly impact an organization's bottom line

Information Timeliness

• Real-time information – Immediate, up-to-date information

• Real-time system – Provides real-time information in response to requests

Difficulties in Managing Business Data

• Amount of data increases exponentially.• Data are scattered and collected by many individuals using various methods and devices.

• Data come from many sources.• Data security, quality and integrity are critical.• An ever-increasing amount of data needs to be considered in making organizational decisions.

Data Life Cycle ( in modern businesses )

Data Management• File Processing Systems

• Stand-alone applications with their own data files.• Data are NOT shared across applications• Redundancy , Inaccurate

• DBMS – Database Management Systems• Use a DBMS software to create, store, organize, and

retrieve data from a single database or several databases

• Examples: Microsoft Access, SQL Server, Oracle

Conventional Files vs. the DatabaseFile – a collection of similar records.

• Files are unrelated to each other except in the code of an application program.

• Data storage is built around the applications that use the files.

Database – a collection of interrelated files• Records in one file (or table) are physically related to

records in another file (or table).• Applications are built around the integrated database

Difficulties of Non-Relational Data Files

• Update Anomaly: not changing all occurrence of a data item (in many places)

• Insert Anomaly: add an invalid (null record) to the database

• Delete Anomaly: not remove all info (in many places) about a deleted record

A File Processing System

Database Management System

DBDBMS

Application1

Application2

Application3

Files vs. Database

Database Management System (DBMS)

Database

Record

File

Field Individual characteristics/attributes about an ENTITY. (Also called columns)

A group of fields or attributes to describe a single instance/member of an ENTITY. (Also called rows)

A collection of records or instances for a given ENTITY. (Also called tables)

A collection of files or entities containing information to support a given system or a particular topic area

Main Database Activities/Functions• Recording Data (Input)

• Entry Form• Processing Data (Query)

• Structured Query Language (SQL)• Query by example (QBE)

• Reporting Data (Output)• Report – a compilation of data that is organized and

produced in printed format• Report Generators

The Database Approach• DBMS provides all users with access to all the data.

• DBMS minimize the following problems:• Data redundancy• Data isolation• Data inconsistency

• DBMS maximizes the following issues:• Data security• Data integrity• Data independence

Using A Relational Database For Business Advantages• Database advantages from a business perspective include• Increased flexibility• Increased scalability and performance• Reduced information redundancy• Increased information integrity (quality)• Increased information security

Increased Flexibility• A well-designed database should

• Handle changes quickly and easily• Provide users with different views• Have only one physical view

• Physical view – Deals with the physical storage of information on a storage device

• Have multiple logical views• Logical view – Focuses on how individual users logically access

information to meet their own particular business needs

Increased Scalability & Performance• A database must scale to meet increased demand, while maintaining acceptable performance levels• Scalability – Refers to how well a system can

adapt to increased demands• Performance – Measures how quickly a system

performs a certain process or transaction

Database Approach• Advantages of the Database Approach

• Program-data independence• Minimal data redundancy• Improved data consistency• Improved data sharing• Increased productivity of application development• Enforcement of standards• Improved data quality• Improved data accessibility• Reduced program maintenance

Database Approach . . .• Costs/Risks of the Database Approach

• New, specialized personnel• Installation/management cost and complexity• Conversion cost: what to do with legacy systems

(old data)• Need for explicit backup and recovery• Data ownership: organizational conflict

Student ID

Last Name

First Name

2144 Arnold Betty

3122 Taylor John

3843 Simmons Lisa

9844 Macy Bill

2837 Leath Heather

2293 Wrench Tim

Record / Row

Field / ColumnData Hierarchy

File / Table

Database

Database Management Systems

Database Components

Database Engine

Database

Form Builder

ReportWriter

Interactive Query Tool

ApplicationProgram

DatabaseFront-end

DatabaseGatewayTo other

computer systems To other DBMS brands

Data Modeling• ERD (Entity Relationship Diagram)

Blue print of Relational Database• Entity (object / info of interest)• Attributes (characteristics / fields)• Relationship (business rules)

Entities• Entity is a group of attributes corresponding to the same conceptual thing about which we need to capture and store data (in a file/table)

• Entity is a set of instances / members of the object that it represents (records)

• Entity must have a unique name, unique identifier, and at least one attribute (the identifier itself is sufficient)

• Persons: agency, contractor, customer, department, division, employee, instructor, student, supplier.

• Places: sales region, building, room, branch office, campus.

• Objects: book, machine, part, product, raw material, software license, software package, tool, vehicle model, vehicle.

• Events: application, award, cancellation, class, flight, invoice, order, registration, renewal, requisition, reservation, sale, trip.

• Concepts: account, block of time, bond, course, fund, qualification, stock.

Entities: Examples

Entity Instance: ExampleEntity instance – a single member of an entity.

Student ID Last Name First Name

2144 Arnold Betty

3122 Taylor John

3843 Simmons Lisa

9844 Macy Bill

2837 Lea Heather

2293 Wrench Tim

Entity

Instances

Attributes

Attributes• An attribute is a descriptive property or characteristic of interest of an entity. Also called field.

• The data type for an attribute defines what type of data can be stored in that attribute.

• The domain of an attribute defines what values an attribute can legitimately take on.

• The default value for an attribute is the value that will be recorded if not specified by the user.

Entities & Attributes

Entities & Attributes . . .

ENTITY NAME

- entity id - attribute 1 - attribute 2 - …………..

- attribute n

CUSTOMER

- Customer_ID- Cust_Name - Cust_Address

- Cust_Phone

Attributes• Simple vs. composite

• Single-valued vs. multi-valued

• Stored vs. derived

• Null-valued

Simple Vs. Composite• Composite attributes can be divided into smaller subparts, which represent more basic attributes that have their own meanings

• Address can be broken down into a number of subparts, such as Street, City, State, Zip Code

• Street may be further broken down by Number, Street Name, and Apartment/Unit Number

• Attributes that are not divisible into subparts are called simple attributes

Single-valued Vs. Multi-valued• Single-valued attribute means having only a single value of each attribute of an entity at any given time• A CUSTOMER entity allows only one Telephone Number for

each CUSTOMER• If a CUSTOMER has more than one Phone Number and wants

them all included in the database, then CUSTOMER entity cannot handle them

Multi-valued• Multi-valued attribute means having the potential to

contain more than one value for an attribute at any given time

• An entity in a relational database cannot have multi-valued attributes, must create another entity to hold them

• Relational databases do not allow multi-valued attributes because they can cause problems: • Confuses the meaning of data in the database• Significantly slow down searching• Place unnecessary restrictions on the amount of

data that can be stored

Stored Vs. Derived• If an attribute can be calculated using the value of

another attribute, it is called a derived attribute

• The attribute that is used to derive the attribute is called a stored attribute

• Derived attributes are not stored in the file, but can be derived when needed from the stored attributes

Null-valued• Null-valued attribute – Assigned to an attribute when no other value applies or when a value is unknown

THANKYOU (PART 2 IN NEXT LECTURE)