Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
SELF-CHECK
•
Explain why businesses see data management as a critical
requirement.
•
List companies that collect data about their customers as part of
their normal business activities.
1.2 Understanding Data Sources
A single piece of data is a single fact about something that interests us. Think
about the world around you, about your environment. In any environment there
are things that are important to you, and there are facts about those things that are
worth remembering. A thing can be an obvious object like an automobile or a
piece of furniture. But the concept of an object is broad enough to include a
person, an organization like a company, or an event that took place, like a par-
ticular meeting. A fact can be any characteristic of an object. In a university envi-
ronment it may be the fact that student Gloria Thomas has completed ninety-
six credits, or it may be the fact that Professor Howard Gold graduated from
Ohio State University, or it may be the fact that English 349 is being held in
Room 830 of Alumni Hall. In a commercial environment, it may be the fact that
employee John Baker's employee number is 137; or it may be the fact that one
of a company's suppliers, the Superior Products Company, is located in Chicago;
or it may be the fact that the refrigerator with serial number 958304 was man-
ufactured on November 5, 2004. Usually, we have many facts to describe some-
thing of interest to us in our environment.
1.2.1 Picking a Starting Point
Before you can begin organizing data into some useful form, available data must
be collected. Data gathering can be tedious, but is critical. Initially, you aren't
concerned about sorting the data or trying to identify what is or isn't important.
Instead, you need to just get the data together in one central location. Once you
have that, you can start figuring out what you can (and should) do with it.
A good place to start is with identifying the company's
core business
—its
primary activity and reason for existence. Notice the numerous activities in a
company. For example, look at the activities in a car rental business. Different
departments are engaged in various activities, like the examples in Figure 1-4.
What are the activities in the department that manages the fleet? This depart-
ment studies the demand for different types of cars. It examines the usage and
status at individual branches. It places orders to replace cars that need to be
