MIS 4340/5340 Spring 2016
Exam 1 Study Guide
This study guide is meant to supplement your other study materials. IT IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR YOUR STUDY MATERIALS. It is NOT a guarantee that all questions will come from this list of topics. Review textbook chapters/sections indicated in class and on the schedule page. Review all powerpoint slides, personal lecture notes, assignments to-date, quiz questions, as well as all in-class exercises and examples. You should be comfortable with all this material.
1.
Understand the four phases of the SDLC, the key purpose/focus of each phase, and specific data activities in each phase. Understand the traditional data roles in SDLC projects and be familiar with some of the newer, more specific roles.
2.
Understand the evolution of file/database technologies. Be able to discuss traditional file processing versus database management systems, including how/who manages data in file processing, disadvantages of file processing and advantages of database processing.
3.
Know and be able to describe the major components of a client/server database management system.
4.
Understand the concepts of master data management and cloud computing. Be able to give and/or recognize definitions of each.
5.
Know what ERDs are, which model/schema uses ERD notation, all components of an ERD, what the components represent, and rules for constructing an ERD. Understand completeness and disjointness constraints of generalization hierarchies, and the concepts of generalization and specialization. Be able to construct an ERD given a scenario similar to the ones done in class, on the quiz, and on assignment 1. Understand multi-valued attributes, derived attributes, and any other ERD-related concept discussed in class and in assigned reading.
6.
Be able to answer questions about an ERD given to you (components, what it's depicting, errors on the diagram, etc.)
7.
Know and be able to discuss the 3 components of the relational database model. Be familiar with the relational rules and operators.
8.
Be able to describe candidate keys, primary keys, alternate keys, atomic keys, concatenated/composite keys, natural keys, surrogate keys, foreign keys, super keys, and secondary keys. Understand the role of all these keys, how they differ and any advantages and disadvantages of each key. What is the purpose of primary and foreign keys? Know characteristics and guidelines of primary keys.
9.
What are anomalies? What causes anomalies? How do we avoid database anomalies? Know examples of anomalies.
10.
What are normalization and referential integrity? Why do we do these activities? Know what to look for to determine if tables are in
1st, 2nd, and 3rd normal forms. Understand how to document RI constraints. Be able to explain the options for handling the update or deletion of records with PKs that are referenced by FKs. Know what happens when different options for update or delete are specified.
11.
Be able to take a given table/relation/file, identify what NF it's in, and convert it to 3NF relations (similar to the normalization assignment and the in-class normalization examples). Given an ERD, know how to create a complete logical design. Given an unnormalized table or ERD, be able to create a “normalized” table or ERD.
12.
Know and be able to discuss the goals and key activities of physical database design.
13.
Be able to discuss considerations in choosing a DBMS.
14.
What steps are involved in designing physical details of fields?
15.
Know the key SQL Server data types discussed in class, how they differ, and when you’d use each type.
16.
What are the 4 ways we can control the integrity of data stored in fields? Know what they mean.
17.
What is denormalization? What are advantages and disadvantages? Why would we consider denormalization?
18.
Be able to explain the 2 forms of file organizations discussed in class. Be able to explain how they work and the advantages and disadvantages of each.
19.
Be able to explain the following concepts about indexes: what is an index, primary key index, secondary index, why we use indexes over other file organizations, and why you would caution someone about the use of indexes?