SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DATABASE ENVIRONMENT - Database Design and Development: An Essential Guide for IT Professionals - page 71

Customer
data

Ascertain customer's requirements

Find discounted plans

Flight
locations

Check routing/connecting flights

Discount
plans

Verify seat availability

CORE BUSINESS
Provide
air
transportation

Reserve seats on selected routes

Fare
schedule

Record preferences

Available
seats

Issue ticket

Collect airfare

Payment
options

Print itinerary

Required
information
Figure 3-2

PROCESS: ticketing and reservation

Information for ticketing and seat reservation process.

process? The people, buildings, equipment, and materials are all part of the assets
and resources necessary for performing the process. Given these assets and
resources, can the process be completed? Is anything else essential for carrying out
the process?
Now examine the individual tasks of ticketing and seat reservation process. Let
us say that the customer wants to make a trip from New York to Miami on a
Monday. Are there any promotional discount plans? Now the ticketing agent must
find and offer a suitable discount plan, if available. Although the agent has the desk,
equipment, and other resources, he or she needs information about the available
discount plans. Only with proper information, can the agent find and offer a suit-
able discount plan.
Next proceed to the task of checking possible routing options and connecting
flights. To perform this task, the agent needs information about the different routing
options and connecting flights on Mondays. After going through the routing options
and flight times, let us say that the customer has picked a specific routing option.
Go further to the next task in the process: verifying seat availability. What infor-
mation does the agent need to complete this task? Of course, the agent must have
information about seat availability in each leg of the journey. Our review continues
with all the tasks of the process. You will note that the agent needs different types
of information for every task of the process. Figure 3-2 shows information needed
for the ticketing and seat reservation process. Notice the various types of informa-
tion necessary for the process.
We have considered just one process in the airline company. Even for this one
process, various types of critical information are essential to finish the process. What
about the numerous other processes in the company, all geared to provide air trans-
portation to customers? Each of the processes is carried out through several tasks.