Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Generally speaking, assignment questions are more demanding than examination
questions, and require more time. You will also observe that most of the examination
questions are drawn from actual assignments. You should therefore do the assignments
before attempting the examinations. The suggested weight (in points) for each question
is indicated immediately following the question in curly brackets.No solution is provided
for the problems posed in this chapter, for the following reasons:
•
The problems are intended to test your understanding of the
materials covered. If you find that you are struggling with the
solution to a problem, then you need to review the relevant
sections before continuing.
•
In some cases (particularly where you are asked to design a
database), there may be more than one solution to the problem(s)
posed. This in typical in software engineering as well as in
database systems, where you analyze alternate solutions to a
problem, and choose the most prudent one.
•
If your are using this topic as a prescribed text for a course in
database systems, your professor will want to have a say in what
questions you ought to focus on.
26.2 Sample Assignment 1A
Zealot Industries Inc. is a manufacturing firm with over 2000 employees. The firm has been
expanding well beyond the founders' expectations. However, it faces a severe hindrance
to additional expansion — the absence of a computerized Human Resource Management
System (HRMS) that could facilitate management of human resource related issues.
Precision Software Inc. is a software engineering firm contracted to develop
and implement the HRMS project. After a preliminary meeting with Zealot's senior
management, the lead software engineer on the Precision Software team documents his
findings as follows:
•
A detailed employee profile consists of the employee's personal
information, employment history, education history and
beneficiary information.
•
Every employee belongs to a department, and is assigned a
specific job description (there may be several employees with the
same job description).
•
Employees are classified according to the salary range that they
fall in.
•
Each employee has a compensation package which outlines basic
salary and other benefits. Benefits include health insurance,
retirement plan, life insurance, professional development
allowance, housing allowance, traveling allowance, entertainment
allowance, vacation allowance, and education allowance.
