Written Analysis: Critical Thinking Questions

Part 1: Answer the questions below. These questions were chosen to demonstrate your understanding and help you assess your progress.

Provide three different options that are available when selecting an identifier for a student entity. What are the pros and cons of each choice

First Option: An identifier for relationship can be applied. It implies, it may be designed as Student-Lastname. It is an effective identifier as it is simple to use and locate. One significant disadvantage is the similarity in names for example name like Joan can represent eight identifiers.

Second Option: Sometimes single attributes are quite helpful just like the Social Security Number (SSN). Its pro is that It is a unique field as it cannot be duplicated for other people in the database.

Its con is that it has a legal framework that is complex to deal with.

Third Option: The New Attribute. It can be represented by an ID of the student which is only generated or identified by the school.

It is an efficient attribute; one bad aspect is enforcing the students to remember their ID every time it is needed especially if it is a long complex number.

Define what is meant by an entity, attribute, and relationship in a data model. How should they be named? What information about them should be stored in the CASE repository? You may use a table to report your answer, or break it down into entity, attribute, and relationship.

An entity is a place, a thing or a person. Entity is usually written in block letters. The data is usually gathered and stored.

An attribute defines an entity, and it is its property.

A relationship entails the connection between two entities, and it is illustrated with a verb.

Details that should be stored in the CASE repository is Definition, Name as well as the Special notes.

Summarize the distinctions between the analysis phase and the design phase of the SDLC.

A significant distinction that can be evident between the design phase and the analysis phase is that the two are dependent on each other. As such, if there is no analysis phase then the design phase would be no existent. Every phase offers entirely different purpose in the SDLC. The primary role of the analysis phase is to illustrate more on initial the vision as well as what the new framework might achieve. In this regard, it is imperative to assess and understand the present circumstances and establish potential weak areas that may need reinforcement. Upon identification of requirements for the proposed system, they are applied as inputs in the design phase.

In the design phase, determination of the technical architecture is made possible which were initially established in the analysis stage. The team in charge of designing the system would fundamentally transform the firms requirements to the system needs. It is inclusive of but not limited to hardware, data models, processing the activities which are all recorded in a plan of action and blueprint.

Describe the primary activities of the design phase of the SDLC.

In the design phase of the SDLC, the decision to make is how it is built. A system design is precisely the ultimate determination of what the system architecture would look like or would comprise. It entails a collection of various components such as hardware, processing models, the users, programs as well as the correspondence channels. Some strategies need to be put in place to make the process a sustainable. These include the acquisition approach and design approach. The architecture is designed, and this entails the theoretical aspect being converted into system needs. Designing the user interaction interface is important. System navigation process should also entail the design of system output and input. The design document is quite imperative to disseminate information on design channel of operations. The conversion of the logical procedural model to the physical process is the basis for the functionality of a system.

Part 2: Module Practice:

Design a database structure that captures/tracks information of researchers within all universities in a given state. Information of interest includes researcher name, title, position; university name, location, enrollments; and research interest. Each researcher can only be associated with one university, and each researcher may have one or more research interest.