Kenneth J.

Sousa Effy Oz

MANAGEMENT
INFORMATION
SYSTEMS
Seventh Edition

Chapter 7
Databases and Data Warehouses

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Objectives
Explain the difference between traditional file
organization and the database approach to
managing digital data
Explain how relational and object-oriented
database management systems are used to
construct databases, populate them with data,
and manipulate the data to produce information
Enumerate the most important features and
operations of a relational database, the most
popular database model
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Objectives (cont'd.)
Understand how data modeling and design
creates a conceptual blueprint of a database
Discuss how databases are used on the web
List the operations involved in transferring data
from transactional databases to data
warehouses

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Managing Digital Data

Businesses collect and dissect data for many
purposes
Data stored in database format
Easy access and manipulation

Databases have had a profound impact on

business
An information industry has been created

Database technology integrated with the Internet

has contributed to commerce significantly
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The Traditional File Approach

Traditional file approach: no mechanism for
tagging, retrieving, or manipulating data
Database approach: provides powerful
mechanism for managing and manipulating data
Traditional approach shortcomings
Program-data dependency
High data redundancy
Low data integrity

Data redundancy: duplication of data

Data integrity: accuracy of data
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Figure 7.1 The structure and layout of a human resource file using a traditional file organization
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The Database Approach

Data pieces organized as entities
Entity: an object about which an organization
chooses to collect data, such as:
People
Events
Products

Character: smallest piece of data

A single letter or a digit

Field: single piece of information about entity

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The Database Approach (cont'd.)

Record: collection of related fields
File: collection of related records
Database fields can hold images, sounds, video
clips, etc.
Field name allows easy access to the data
Database management system (DBMS) is a
program used to:
Build databases
Populate a database with data
Manipulate data in a database
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Figure 7.2 The hierarchy of data

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The Database Approach (cont'd.)

Data sources
Transaction processing systems
Source data input devices, e.g., scanning and
RFID
Web and mobile activities
Purchased external data
Nonoperational transaction data from social
media

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The Database Approach (cont'd.)

Query: a message to the database requesting
data from specific records and/or fields
Database must be properly secured
Not everyone should have access to all data
Users will have different views of the database,
based on the data they are allowed to see

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The Database Approach (cont'd.)

Database administrator (DBA): the person
responsible for managing the database
Sets user limits for access to data in the database

Businesses strive to maintain continuous and

uninterrupted operations to:
Serve their stakeholders
Preserve their financial well-being

Backup and redundant storage help ensure

continuity of technology infrastructure
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Figure 7.3 Using database views, users may have different structural pictures of a database
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Figure 7.3 Using database views, users may have different structural pictures of a database
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Database Models
Database model: general logical structure
How records are stored in the database
How relationships between records are
established

Database models differ in:

How records are linked to each other
How users can navigate the database, retrieve
records, and create records

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The Relational Model

Relational database model: consists of tables
Based on relational algebra
Tuple: record (or row)
Attribute: field (or column)
Relation: table of records

To design a relational database, you must

understand the entities to be stored in the
database and how they relate
Tables are independent of each other, but can
be related to each other
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The Relational Model (cont'd.)

Key: a field whose values identify records
Used to retrieve records

Join table combines data from two or more

tables
Primary key: a field by which records are
uniquely identified
Each record in the table must have a unique key
value

Composite key: combination of fields that serve

as a primary key
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Figure 7.5 A structural representation of a relational database

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Figure 7.5 (contd.) A structural

representation of a relational database
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The Relational Model (cont'd.)

Foreign key: a field that matches to a primary
key in another table
Used to link the tables

Types of table relationships

One-to-many relationship: one item in a table is
linked to many items in the other table
Many-to-many relationship: many items in a
table are linked to many items of the other table

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Figure 7.6 A representation of a join table from the Book and Publisher tables

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The Object-Oriented Model

Object-oriented database model: uses objectoriented approach for the database structure
Encapsulation: combined storage of data and
relevant procedures to process it
Allows object to be planted in different data sets

Inheritance: the ability to create a new object by

replicating the characteristics of an existing
(parent) object
Object-oriented database management system
(ODBMS) stores data objects, not records
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Figure 7.7 An object-oriented database

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Relational Operations
Relational operation: creates a temporary
subset of a table or tables
Used to create a limited list or a joined table list
Three most important relational operations
Select: a selection of records based on conditions
Project: a selection of certain columns from a
table
Join: combines data from multiple tables to create
a temporary table
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Structured Query Language (SQL)

SQL: query language of choice for DBMSs
Advantages
It is an international standard
It is provided with most relational DBMSs
It has easy-to-remember, intuitive commands

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The Schema and Metadata

Schema: a plan that describes the structure of
the database, including:
Names and sizes of fields
Identification of primary keys
Relationships

Data dictionary: a repository of information

about the data and their organization

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The Schema and Metadata (cont'd.)

Metadata: additional details about the data

Source of the data

Tables related to the data
Field and index information
Programs and processes that use the data
Population rules: what is inserted, or updated,
and how often

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Figure 7.8 A schema of the Employee table in an Access 2010 database. The Field Properties area on the
bottom shows the properties of the attribute (field) EmployeeID
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Data Modeling
Databases must be carefully planned and
designed to meet business goals
Data modeling: analyzing an organizations
data and identifying the data relationships
A proactive process
Develops a conceptual blueprint of the database

Entity relationship diagram (ERD): a graphical

representation of all entity relationships

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Data Modeling (cont'd.)

ERD components

Boxes: identify entities

Lines: indicate relationship between entities
Crossbars: indicate mandatory fields
Circles: indicate optional
Crows feet: identify many

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Figure 7.9 An entity relationship diagram (ERD)

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Figure 7.10 Fields of the Professor entity

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Databases on the Web

Web is dependent on databases
Organizations must link their databases to the
web

Interface between web and database required

Interface may be programmed in one of several
web programming languages, such as:

Java servlets
Active server pages (ASP) and ASP.NET
PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor)
Web APIs (application program interfaces)

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Figure 7.11 An example of how Active Server Page technology enables data queries and processing via
the web
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Data Warehousing
Data collections are used for daily transactions
Accumulation of transaction data is useful

Data warehouse: a large repository database

that supports management decision making
Typically relational
Data is collected from transactional databases

Data mart: a smaller collection of data focusing

on a particular subject or department

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From Database to Data Warehouse

Transactional databases are not suitable for
business analysis
Contain only current, not historical, data

Data warehouse requires large storage capacity

Mainframe computers are often used
Scalability is an issue
Data warehouses grow continually

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Phases in Data Warehousing

ETL: phases in transferring data from a
transactional database to a data warehouse
Extraction phase: create files from transactional
database and save on the data warehouse server
Transformation phase: cleanse and modify the
data format
Loading phase: transfer files to data warehouse
(database)

A properly built data warehouse becomes a

single source for all data required for analysis
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Phases in Data Warehousing (contd.)

Data mining and online analytical processing
(OLAP) use data in data warehouses
Managers extract business intelligence for
decision making

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Figure 7.12 Phases in preparing and using a data warehouse

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Summary
Organizations collect vast amounts of data
Database approach has several advantages
over traditional file approach
Character: smallest piece of data
Field: made up of multiple characters
Record: collection of related fields
File: collection of related records
Database management system (DBMS): tool to
construct databases
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Summary (cont'd.)
Relational and object-oriented database models
have different advantages
Keys are used to form links among entities
Primary keys are unique identifiers
Object-oriented database maintains objects that
contain data and procedures that process them
Structured Query Language (SQL) is an
international standard for querying databases
Database designer must construct a schema to
construct a database
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Summary (cont'd.)
Database designers conduct data modeling and
create entity relationship diagrams to plan
databases
Many databases are linked to Web
Data warehouses contain huge collections of
historical transaction data
Data warehouse data requires extraction,
transformation, loading (ETL)

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Summary (cont'd.)
Invasion of privacy is exacerbated by database
technology
Big Data is the collection and storage of evermore detailed quantities of data

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