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ISM 6938
Course Description: Prerequisites: Graduate standing. Data has emerged as a strategic resource and hence, like other strategic resources (e.g. human and financial) must be managed with care and rigor. In order to compete in a dynamic business environment, business enterprises must effectively process, analyze, and synthesize their data to produce timely and accurate information. This course introduces students to the process of analyzing, designing, building, and managing databases and database applications. Course Objectives: The primary objective of this course is to develop the necessary skills for the design of databases and to understand the fundamentals of database analysis, design and implementation. While relational database management systems (RDBMS) will be emphasized throughout the course, object oriented database management systems (OODBMS) will also be covered, along with other current and emerging database technologies. The course readings, assignments, and classroom discussion are designed to provide students with a solid foundation in the theoretical principles of database design and management. Other assignments and project are designed to provide students with the experience of applying these principles in a database application implementation. Students are expected to have completed the assigned readings prior to attending the lectures and to participate in class discussions. "Hands on" experience is provided through use of a relational database management system on a PC platform (Access 2000) and an application development environment (Visual Basic). The goal is to enable students to design a database and to build an application to use it. Through this work, students will become aware of some of the common problems and pitfalls that can arise during the analysis, design, and implementation of a database management system. The following topics will be covered:
Students that complete this course should have a strong understanding of the follow concepts and techniques:
Resources: Required Textbook: Database
Systems for Management, James F. Courtney and David B. Paradice.
This book is currently out of print, but will be available online for
students to download. Optional Textbooks: Applications Development in Microsoft Access 2000, Dirk Baldwin and David Paradice, Course Technology, 2000.
Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes, by Forta, SAMS, 2000, ISBN: 0-672-31664-1. Software:
· Together is a very powerful UML modeling package. You may download it from the Togethersoft site (www.togethersoft.com). UCF has an academic license to use it, but it requires 128 mb of memory. You are encouraged to download it and use it for your data modeling homework, but this is not required. Instructions for downloading will be available on my website. Hardware: While the campus labs provide access to personal computers running Visual Basic and the Microsoft Office Suite, past students have found these labs to be generally inaccessible/ inadequate for the work required in this course. In addition, the computers in the main labs are known to crash easily when running VB. Lastly, students typically experience significant delays in waiting for computers and in printing, especially during the busier times of the semester. While MIS majors and minors are not required to own their own personal computers, I strongly recommend that you arrange to have permanent access (purchase or share with family/friends) to a personal computer running Windows 98 or NT 4.0 and the required software for this course. The inability to obtain access to a personal computer will not excuse you from turning in assignments in a timely manner. Academic Dishonesty/Cheating: Alleged violations of the UCF Rules of Conduct - Academic Dishonesty/Cheating will be reported. In accordance with The Judicial Process set forth in The Golden Rule, all forms of academic dishonesty/cheating will be reported to the university judicial officer. All exams and homework assignments should be completed individually. Course projects should be completed in groups. Similarities in exams, homework assignments, and project assignments will be investigated. Grading Policy: The following grade scale will be used in this course:
Grades will be calculated from the following course activities:
Assigned Readings - The assigned readings as listed on the course schedule should be completed prior to the date the readings are scheduled to be discussed in class. The lectures will include concepts and material from the textbook and other sources. Class notes/presentations for the lectures will be available on the course web site prior to coverage in class. Homework Assignments You will have approximately 5 homework assignments that will involve the development of a relatively simple database application. These assignments will prepare you for your project, that will be done later in the course. Course Project – A course project will be assigned in mid-semester.You will be given a transcript of an interview from a project that your instructor is working on. From the interview transcript, you will identify objects and relationships that exist in the related application, draw UML class diagrams for that application and implement the diagrams and appropriate queries in Access 2000..Individual assignments (milestones) with due dates will be included on the course schedule to enable students to decompose the project into segments and to ensure that the project is completed in a timely manner. Due to the extended period of time given to work on the project, no final projects will be accepted after the assigned due date. The final project document will include conceptual, logical and physical models of the database along with documentation of the supporting program interface. Students are encouraged to retain copies of this document and use it during the career placement process to demonstrate some of the knowledge and experience they have gained in their course work. Exam Coverage Email Protocol Email correspondence is encouraged. I usually check my mail several times during the day and respond promptly (within a few hours) to mail received between 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Email sent after 5:00 p.m. and on weekends or holidays may not be answered until the next regular business day. Lengthy email questions or questions regarding conceptual issues may be redirected to office hours where person-to-person discussion can take place. When requesting email assistance on programming issues, you must provide the following:
Class Attendance While class attendance is not a graded component of this course, attendance will be taken periodically, participation is expected and is 5% of your grade. Postings on the WebCT forums for the class, if appropriate, will count as participation. Students that regularly do not attend class loose the privilege of having questions regarding the course topics answered during office hours or via email. Students should understand that their grade could be adversely affected by not attending class and that it is the student's responsibility (not the professor's) to make up for the material covered in the missed class meetings. Furthermore, it is the student's responsibility to be aware of any changes made to the course schedule posted on my web site. |
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