Information Systems and Databases - Portfolio Element 2
Title
Database Design and Build – Weighting 40%
Due date: 9.00am Monday 30th May 2022
Learning
Outcomes:
LO1, LO2, LO3
Task details
You are required to design and implement a database to address the requirements of a
business scenario provided by your tutor (see below).
Note that as the scenario contains only a brief outline of a business case study, you will
need to state any business rules and assumptions that you have made in order to fill any
gaps or address any ambiguities when putting together your database design. All the
required tables need to be implemented on the Oracle APEX account provided for your
use, and a report submitted via the submission link provided, using the assignment
report template provided containing the following elements, in this order:
1. A header page which includes your student number and APEX user account.
2. A list of up to 5 assumptions/clarifications you have made that have impacted on
the design of your database.
3. An ER diagram (using ‘Crows foot’ notation) showing entities, attributes, and
relationships
4. Entity specification forms documenting all your entities (using the template
provided)
5. The SQL scripts used to create your tables (including all constraints)
6. Test data, annotated to show that there is sufficient breadth and quantity of data
to adequately test your queries/reports (below).
7. SQL scripts for 6 substantial SQL queries/reports that effectively demonstrate the
functionality of the system, with an explanation of their rationale/use. The SQL
should be provided together with the output it produces. The queries you choose
should illustrate the breadth and potential of the implemented database, as well
as your mastery of SQL.
Note that, following submission, you may be asked to provide a demonstration of your
working database to your tutor. Vivas will take place within 15 days of submission, exact
day and time TBC.
Marking
Criteria
Element
Issues
Marks
Analysis and
Modelling
Does your solution demonstrate creativity in producing
a realistic, professional design for the scenario, taking
into consideration any additional assumptions? Does
the solution demonstrate a high level of understanding
of the principles of ER modelling?
15
Solution provides adequate number of tables and
attributes to cover the scenario. (5)
ER diagram is robust - PKs, FKs are correctly identified,
and relationships are sound. (5)
All entities are correctly and comprehensively
documented. Appropriate data types, widths,
constraints are all noted. Does the documentation
provide a complete and unambiguous description of
your data design? (5)
Database
Does your SQL table creation script and implemented
implementation database fully reflect your database design?
5
Test Data
Are all tables populated with adequate sample data to
test relationships and queries?
5
Queries
Does each query clearly address its stated functional
requirement?
12
Do queries demonstrate an appropriate level of
complexity and SQL skill
Presentation
Does the assignment conform fully to the template? is
the ER diagram legible and easy to follow?
Total:
3
40
ASSESSMENT SCENARIO:
ISDB Information Systems and Databases Assignment Scenario
A residential care home company has decided to set up a scheme to actively engage visitors in the
care of their residents, in order to boost support to their elderly patients and make best use of their
care staff whose numbers have been gradually declining because of Covid related issues. The basic
premise is that visiting relatives can help with staff shortages by doing some of the work normally
allocated to staff, eg serving meals and helping with leisure activities. This arrangement seems to
have the backing of the residents and their families who appreciate that the care home is struggling
to cope with the ever-increasing staff shortages.
All residents are now permitted one visitor who is the designated ‘primary visiting carer’ for that
resident and can visit at any time, along with up to three other named visitors, whose visits are
restricted to specific days of the week of their choosing. Basic details need to be recorded for each
visitor, including to what level they have been vaccinated against Covid. The care home is insistent
that for security reasons visitors can only visit on the days they have specified, and as a check, a list
of the day’s ‘permitted visitors’ is kept in reception along with details of the person they are visiting.
Any registered visitor may volunteer to help with running leisure activities. This is being encouraged
in order to expand the range of activities on offer and to cut down on external paid assistants who
are employed to run them. The care home manager is appealing to the altruistic nature of relatives,
but also thinks that she could incentivise them to help by allocating some kind of ‘bonus’ or small
reward to the most ‘helpful’ visitor or to their related resident.
Activities are varied and range from card games to karate for the over 80’s. Residents are
encouraged to try as many different things as they can to keep themselves mentally and physically
active and to pursue each activity for at least a month. At the end of the month, they are asked to
indicate whether they liked or disliked the activities, and this information is recorded so that the
care home can offer something new if the resident was not happy with his/her choice.
A check needs to be kept on the expenses incurred in running these activities as most involve some
kind of outgoings in addition to any hired help. The care home has worked out the average cost of
each activity on a ‘per head/per month’ basis and needs to monitor the number of residents taking
up each activity, to stay within its ‘entertainment’ budget.
The care home director has asked you to think about designing a database to help with tracking all
this information. This is an extract below from an interview with her, where she provides her initial
thoughts:
“We currently have 20 homes, but initially I’d really like to try this scheme out at our ‘Peaceful Haven’
home which is the largest. It could be a game changer, who knows? I’ve spoken to many of the
visitors, and they’ve said they would like to help out - and to keep dementia at bay, our residents
need to be kept busy. Some relatives have expressed interesting in running activities that we don’t
currently offer, so I think we would be able to expand our current range and provide something for
everyone. Ideally, I’d like to make one person responsible for a particular activity – a kind of ‘activity
leader’, but he or she wouldn’t be required to attend every session that is run for that activity, just
coordinate it in a general way. We need to know which resident is signed up for which monthly
activity, and we also need to maintain a schedule of the dates that these activities are being run, and
which visitors can help out at each session. There may be occasions where we get no volunteers and
we might have to ring others to come in, ie those who have said they are interested in helping out
with that activity, or we may just cancel the session if nobody can do it.
We’ve decided that all residents who have signed up for an activity will attend all the scheduled
sessions for at least a month before deciding whether or not they want to change to something else.
In the past we’ve found that residents who stick at something actually grow to like it.
I feel that we could do more with the data that we collect, for example by working out some kind of
‘compatibility score’ between all residents (essentially the number of activities which a pair of
residents both like). Those residents with the highest compatibility scores could then be ‘paired up’ so
that they could keep themselves amused and enjoy each other’s company, thereby demanding less
time from the care home staff.
Anyhow, I hope you can find some decent database developer who can put this all together and
provide us with some useful reports that can help our organisation run more efficiently. Obviously, it
would be useful to see which are the most popular activities over time and how many sessions we
have managed to staff with volunteers, who is an ‘award winning ‘volunteer etc. It will probably
make it easier to check that we haven’t overspent in any area, and we could have a look at the
individual history of a specific resident. I guess it would be easier to pick out visitor patterns and so
on. I haven’t really thought much more about what a database system might generate, but I hope
your developer can help me come up with some other useful and innovative ideas. I’ve been told that
we should be doing more with our data to get a competitive edge and to be more efficient in these
tough times. Hopefully the database will help with this.”
PORFOLIO ELEMENT 2: MARKING RUBRIC
Element
Criteria
Analysis and
modelling
Poor
1-2
Shows minimal
understanding of ERD
notation; tables are
inadequate for basic
coverage of case study
requirements.
ER diagram, keys
and cardinalities
Many cases of incorrectly
chosen primary, foreign
keys and cardinalities
Documentation
Poor or very little
documentation;
Documentation does not
cover the whole ERD
Implementation
Table creation scripts
poorly reflect the ERD
and documentation; or
no evidence that the
design has been
implemented in APEX; or
scripts have been
reverse-engineered
Test data inadequately
tests many cardinalities
and query requirements;
no relevant annotation
Test data
Queries
Conforming fully to
published template
TOTAL:
Good
3-4
May show some minor
inaccuracies, but
overall exhibits good
understanding of ERD
notation; solution
covers the main case
study requirements
and uses at least 6
tables; observes 3NF
Correct/mostly correct
primary, foreign keys
and cardinalities for a
solution covering the
main case study
requirements
Mostly correct and
comprehensive
documentation
covering the whole
ERD, includes a range
of constraints;
May show some minor
inaccuracies, but table
creation scripts and
implemented
database correctly
reflect the ERD and
documentation
Outstanding
5
Design shows
exceptional analysis
of case study
requirements and
attention to detail;
All tables are
annotated and
populated with data,
but some minor gaps
in requirements
Completely populated
and annotated tables
with correct data
elements reflecting
the ERD design and
query requirements.
/12
2 marks per query, incorporating:
- coverage of a realistic functional requirement
- complexity of query
3
0
yes
no
/40
Correct ERD, keys and
cardinalities covering
an exceptional
solution
Clear and
unambiguous
documentation
covering all elements
for an exceptional
solution
Table creation scripts
and implemented
database fully reflect
the database design
and documentation