Database Systems & Information Modelling

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2010:

For the purposes of considering requests for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements for this entry.

The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

The subject introduces key topics in modern information organization, particularly with regard to structured databases. The well-founded relational theory behind modern structured query language (SQL) engines, has given them as much a place behind the web site of an organization and on the desktop, as they traditionally enjoyed on corporate mainframes. Topics covered include: the managerial view of data, information and knowledge; entity relationship (ER) and extended entity relationship (EER) modelling; normalization and denormalization; database modelling in UML; the SQL language; data integrity; transaction processing and data warehousing. In addition to traditional database applications, alternative technologies such as XML, web services, data mining and organizational memory technologies such as groupware will be briefly surveyed.

The first assignment (10%) requires a conceptual database design, due around the fifth week of semester (three conceptual diagrams in ER and CASE notation, and 1000 words in a data dictionary format). The second assignment (15%) requires answers to 24 set questions against a known database with fixed data contents - requiring the formulation of 24 SQL Select commands, which is due around the seventh week of semester (requires 24 SQL commands). The third assignment (25%), like the first, requires a conceptual database design for a real-world project (students are given the Requirements document) done in teams of two students, and is due around the tenth week of semester (requires three conceptual diagrams in ER and CASE notation, and 1000 words in a data dictionary format). A two-hour open book examination (part multiple choice, part ER diagrams in graphical notation) in the examination period (50%). Satisfactory completion of the examination and assignment components is necessary to pass the subject.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

The student will acquire skills in Information Modelling - a generic skill that will serve the student well throughout a career in Information Systems. Scoping within analysis is also a valuable cross-discipline skill honed during this subject.