THE DATABASE ENVIRONMENT AND

DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

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ELEMENTS OF THE DATABASE APPROACH
 Data Models
 Graphical systems used to capture the nature
and relationships among data.
1. Enterprise Data Model–high-level entities
and relationships for the organization
2. Project Data Model–more detailed view,
matching data structure in database or data
warehouse

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ELEMENTS OF THE DATABASE APPROACH
 Entities
 A person, a place, an object, an event, or a
concept in the user environment about
which the organization wishes to maintain.
 Attributes
 The data about the entity (e.g., Customer

Name) is called an attribute.

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ELEMENTS OF THE DATABASE APPROACH

 Relationships
 A database establishes the relationships between
entities that exist in organizational data so that
desired information can be retrieved.
 Most relationships are one-to-many (1:M) or
many-to-many (M:N).
 Relational Databases
 Database technology involving tables (relations)
representing entities and primary/foreign keys
representing relationships.
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Comparison of Enterprise and Project level data models

Segment of an Enterprise data model

Segment of a Project-level data model

Figure 1-3 5
One customer
may place many
orders, but each
order is placed by
a single customer
 One-to-many
relationship

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One order has many
order lines; each order
line is associated with
a single order
 One-to-many
relationship

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One product can
be in many
order lines, each
order line refers
to a single
product
 One-to-many
relationship

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Therefore, one
order involves
many products
and one product is
involved in many
orders

 Many-to-many
relationship

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A Database Management System
(DBMS) is a software system that enables
the use of a database approach. The primary
purpose of a DBMS is to provide a
systematic method of creating, updating,
storing, and retrieving the data stored in a
database. It enables end users and
application programmers to share data, and
it enables data to be shared among multiple
applications.
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 Components of the Database Environment

Figure 1.5 11
 COMPONENTS OF THE DATABASE ENVIRONMENT
 CASE Tools–Computer-Aided Software Engineering
 These tools help with creation of data models and in

some cases can also help automatically generate the

“code” needed to create the database.
 Repository–Centralized storehouse of metadata
 A repository is a centralized knowledge base for all data
definitions, data relationships, screen and report formats,
and other system components.
 Database Management System (DBMS)
 A DBMS is a software system that is used to create,
maintain, and provide controlled access to user databases.

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 COMPONENTS OF THE DATABASE ENVIRONMENT
 Database
 A database is an organized collection of logically
related data, usually designed to meet the
information needs of multiple users in an
organization.
 Application Programs
 Computer-based application programs are used to
create and maintain the database and provide
information to users.
 User Interface–Text and graphical displays to users
 The user interface includes languages, menus, and
other facilities by which users interact with various
system components
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 COMPONENTS OF THE DATABASE ENVIRONMENT
 Database Administrator
 Data Administrators are persons who are
responsible for the overall management of data
resources in an organization.
 Database administrators are responsible for physical
database design and for managing technical issues
in the database
 System Developers
 System developers are persons such as systems
analysts and programmers who design new
application programs. System developers often use
CASE tools for system requirements analysis and
program design.
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 COMPONENTS OF THE DATABASE ENVIRONMENT
 End Users
 End users are persons throughout the organization

who add, delete, and modify data in the database

and who request or receive information from it. All
user interactions with the database must be routed
through the DBMS.
In summary, the database operational environment
shown in Figure 1-5 is an integrated system of
hardware, software, and people, designed to facilitate
the storage, retrieval, and control of the information
resource and to improve the productivity of the
organization.
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 THE RANGE OF DATABASE APPLICATIONS
 In order to better understand the range of database
applications, we divide them into three categories, based
on the location of the client (application) and the database
software itself: personal, two tier, and multitier databases.
 Personal Databases
 Personal databases are designed to support one user.
Personal databases have long resided on personal
computers (PCs), including laptops, and increasingly on
smartphones and PDAs. The purpose of these databases
is to provide the user with ability to manage (store,
update, delete, and retrieve) small amounts of data in an
efficient manner.

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 THE RANGE OF DATABASE APPLICATIONS
 Two-Tier Client/Server Databases
 The most common method of sharing data for this
type of need is based on creating a two-tier
client/server application as shown in Figure 1-6.
Each member of the workgroup has a computer, and
the computers are linked by means of network
(wired or wireless LAN).

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 THE RANGE OF DATABASE APPLICATIONS

Figure 1.7 18
 THE RANGE OF DATABASE APPLICATIONS
 Multitier Client/Server Databases
 In a three-tiered architecture, the user interface is
accessible on the individual users’ computer. This
user interface may either be Web browser based or
written using programming languages such as
Visual Basic.NET, Visual C#, or Java. The
application layer/Web server layer contains the
business logic required to accomplish the business
transactions requested by the users. This layer in
turn talks to the database server.

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THE RANGE OF DATABASE APPLICATIONS

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 Personal Database – standalone desktop
database
 Workgroup Database – local area network
(<25 users)
 Department Database – local area network
(25-100 users)
 Enterprise Database – wide-area network
(hundreds or thousands of users)
 THE RANGE OF DATABASE APPLICATIONS
 Personal databases
 Two-tier and N-tier Client/Server databases
 Enterprise applications
 Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems
 Data warehousing implementations

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ENTERPRISE DATABASE APPLICATIONS

 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

 Integrate all enterprise functions
(manufacturing, finance, sales, marketing,
inventory, accounting, human resources)
 Data Warehouse
 Integrated decision support system derived
from various operational databases

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