Description
1. Background
The School of Computer Science (SCS) at the University of Sunshine manages and lends
resources to staff and students for assignment and project purposes. The resources include
rooms, cameras, speakers, software, phones, etc.
Managing such services has become cumbersome and the support services of the School of
SCS have requested you to develop a database for their application. The project has been
named as “SCS Resource Management”.
The proposed database system is developed in various modules, including requirements
analysis, conceptual database design, logical database design, and physical database design. In
this assignment 1, you are required to develop user requirements specification and the
conceptual database model for SCS’s database based on the business requirements provided
in this document and related discussions in lectures.
Your lecturer will act as your client and you can query him for any further information and
clarifications.
2. Mission and objectives
The aim of the SCS Resource Management project is to ensure the development of an
efficient, convenient system for resource sharing in the School.
Main objectives of the project include:
• Organising resources to provide efficient access to them
• Supporting research and academic activities by providing access to the required
resources
• Monitoring equipment demand and use to facilitate best practical delivery of resources
at SCS
3. Main Features and Business Requirements
In meeting its objectives, the following main features for the proposed resource management
system have been identified.
• Catalogue Service: Develop a web-based searchable catalogue of all resources.
Facilities will be needed to search the catalogue on various criteria including keyword,
name, type etc.
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• Loan Service: The loan service provides facilities to issue and to return resources.
Resources can be classified as either movable (which can be taken away) or immovable.
Resources are loaned to students or staff members of the School, who are also known as
borrowers. The different types of borrowers are provided with varying degrees of
privileges. The privileges of students will be affected by the courses they are working
on.
• Acquisitions: The School consistently updates its resources. Suggestions for acquiring
access to newer and updated materials are elicited from staff and students of SCS.
Priority is provided for acquisitions pertaining to the teaching and research needs of the
university.
• Reservation Service: The members should be able to reserve resources (if available)
ensuring that they gain access to resources for specific periods of time. Requests for
reservations are authorised on a first-come-first-serve basis.
4. Assignment Tasks (individual assignment)
The proposed database system is developed in various modules, including requirements
analysis, conceptual database design, logical database design, and physical database design. In
this assignment 1, you are required to complete the first two stages of the database design, i.e.,
to develop user requirements specification and the conceptual database model for the database
based on the business requirements provided in this document and related discussions in
lectures. There are two parts to be completed in assignment 1 as described below.
You are required to write and submit a report that includes all the content of the two parts that
are described below. The report must be in Microsoft Word. (Note: in addition to submitting a
separate Visio file, you must insert the EER into the Word file, and the EER must be within 2
pages.)
Part 1: Requirements
In this assignment, you are required to develop a user requirements specification truly
fulfilling the data requirements (to identify what types of data needs to be stored in the
database), transaction requirements (to identify the important and frequent database
operations – data manipulation and queries), and business rules (which are based on this
document and elaborations in lecture) for the database mentioned above.
Assignment submission format for the Requirements part: The requirements document
MUST have the following sections:
• Data Requirements – outlining the major data items
• Transaction requirements – outlining the data manipulation and queries
• Business Rules
Hint: Sample user requirement documents are discussed in weeks 2 and 3, and are available
in appendices A and B of your main textbook.
You may interview your client (i.e. lecturer) for clarification and include your interview
questions and responses.
Part 2: EER Model with Data Dictionary
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Draw an EER model for the requirements identified in Part 1. The EER Model must be shown
in UML notation which is discussed in class and illustrated in our text.
Please note: other notations (other than UML notation discussed/used in the course) will NOT
be accepted, i.e., zero mark will be given for the EER model part if a notation other than
UML is used.
The EER model should be accompanied by a data dictionary which includes entity type table,
relationship type table, and attribute table.
Assignment submission format for the EER Model with Data Dictionary part: The
requirements document MUST have the following sections:
• EER Model
• Documentation – Data dictionary details (description of entities, relationships and
attributes)
The sample format for documenting the data dictionary is provided below (Note: this is for a
different database).
Data Dictionary Format: Use the format described in your main text in documenting the data
dictionary. The following provides samples for reference.
ENTITY TYPES
Entity Name Description Aliases Occurrence
Collection A collection is a physical collect
items in the library located at a
particular physical location
Physical area of the libra
divided into a set of
collections
…
RELATIONSHIP TYPES
Entity name Multiplicity Relationship Multiplicity Entity name
PhysicalCopy 0..* LocatedIn 1..1 Collection
…
ATTRIBUTES
Entity Na Attributes Description Data Typ
Length
NullsMulti
-valued
Derived Default
Student studentId A unique id
given to
student
Char (5) N N N
name Name of
Student
varchar(50) N N N
phoneNo Contact
phone no.s
char(12) Y Y N
Hint: Sample EER models and documentation is provided in Chapter 16 of your text.
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The lecturer will discuss the details of the requirements in class as well as act as the
client of the system. You need to implement all the details mentioned in lecture as well as
described in this document. You are encouraged to ask questions to the lecturer to
clarify requirements.
5. Submission
This is an INDIVIDUAL assignment.
Method of submission: A softcopy submission is required:
• zip all required files into one zip file. The file name MUST be identified by 4 sections:
A1, your first name, your surname, and your student number, e.g.,
A1SimonLee1234567.zip. It must be submitted to Blackboard -> Assessment ->
AssignmentsSubmission-> Assignment1
• In the report file, you must have on the front a signed copy of the cover sheet
(Assessment Item Cover Sheet – Individual) which is available from:
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/75383/AssessmentItemCove
rSheet.pdf
Note: please make sure to fill in your Tutorial Group (i.e., date/time), Tutor’s
Name, as well as other items. Otherwise, your submission marking may be delayed.
Note: Ten percent of the possible maximum mark for the assessment item will be deducted
for each day or part-day that the item is late. Weekends count as one day in determining the
penalty. Assessment items submitted more than five days after the due date will be awarded
zero marks.