Developing an RDBMS for New University

New University is an international University who is looking to develop an effective RDBMS to cater their needs for their growing business. As a junior developer, you have been asked to develop a database for New University which will satisfy all their requirements.The database should contain the information about students, Lecturers, departments, attendance, grades and employees of the University.A student is enrolled in only one course but a course can contain many students.For students, name, address, phone number, course related information to store.

For lecturers, the University wants to record the name, address, identification number and time table information. Not all employees can teach but just the lecturers. For all these employees, it is required to record the qualification i.e. what level of class they can teach. For courses, it is required to record the course and modules details. The course has many modules. For attendance, the University needs to keep the record of attendance of each student. Relevant assumptions, if required can be made.

1. Statistics of the students, lecturers, course and modules

2. Number of presents / absent for a specific month of the student

3. Average marks and grades of students for specific course and module

By relating your discussion to the above scenario where applicable,

1. Discuss about RDBMS and file based systems. Your discussion should include the advantages, disadvantages and limitations of each.

2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Hierarchical, network and relational database models

3. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of top-down and bottom-up approaches to design/develop the database and justify the approach you will use for this task

1. Identity all the possible the entities that you can find in the problem scenario and list them in alphabetical order.

2. Using Crow’s foot notation, design a conceptual data model for the New Airline database in a modelling tool of your choice. All entity types and the relationships between them must be clearly shown. Your design should show all cardinality and participation constraints accurately.

 1. Discuss the principles of normalization and demonstrate by examples the steps you followed to achieve normal forms in relation to the given scenario. Your demonstration must show the full process with explanations, starting from UNF, 1NF, 2NF to 3NF. (There is no requirement here to go through the full list of attributes in the data model for the New University).

2. Produce an ERD with all the normalized entities containing the relevant attributes. State any de-normalization, if any, in all your relations and clearly state the reasons for de-normalizing relations in your implemented solution.

3. Map the ER model devised above into a set of logical relations in the relational data model.

1. Produce a script using appropriate SQL commands (DDL) to create a set of database tables using any relational database. Your tables should also show all constraints applied at either the column or the table level. You are expected to implement the database so that it meets the requirements described in the scenario.

2. By using appropriate SQL statements, populate all the tables in the database you created with some data. The data should be meaningful but does not need to be extensive.

Although much of your report will contain existing body of knowledge, you must write your assignment with your own words to demonstrate your understanding of the subject. You are required to follow the Harvard referencing system when citing others' work. An accompanying list of references must also be provided as part of your report. Extensively referenced work reflects the level of research you conducted in the process of producing the document. It is also an acknowledgement of other people’s work. Correct referencing demonstrates your academic and professional skill. It also reflects your academic honesty and thus to some degree protects you from cases of plagiarism.

1. All components of the assignment report must be word processed (hand written text or hand drawn diagrams are not acceptable), font size must be within the range of 12 point to 14 point including the headings, body text and any texts within diagrams.

2. Standard and commonly used fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial or Calibri should be used.

3. Your document must be aligned left or justified with line spacing of 1.5.

4. All figures, graphs and tables must be numbered and labelled.

5. Material from external sources must be properly refereed and cited within the text using the Harvard referencing system.

6. All components of the assignment (text, diagrams. Code etc.) must be submitted in one pdf file.