Chapter 3 : Data Management

Database –
-A collection of related data organized in a way that makes it valuable and useful.
-Allows for retrieval, storing, and analyzing information easily.
-Is vital to an organizations success in running operations and making decisions.

Entities – Things we store information about.

-People, places, etc
-Have relations to other entities
Attributes – Pieces of information about an entity.

Levels of a database management system(DBMS)

1) Field – characteristic about an entity
2) Record – A group of fields
-Row – describes an entity
3) Table – A collection of records (table)
4) Database – a collection of tables

File Processing vs. Database Approach

File Processing Approach – stored based on position in the file.
-Storage media : Sequential tapes
-Data : Stored in sequential files
-Organization : redundant data
-Efficiency – not very
-Updates - hard, too slow, multiple files need to be updated
-Processing – faster, know exactly where information is..slower queries

Database Approach –
-Storage – DASD – like a hard-drive
-FAT32(file allocation table) – addresses of files
-Data – related tables
-Organization – redundant data (minimized)
-Efficiency – data only stored in tables, easier and quicker to get data out
-Updates – easier, require fewer(or only one) update to a field
-Processing – faster query – but slower processing

Advantages of Database
-Program-data independence
-Minimal data redundancy
-Improved data sharing
-Increased productivity
-Enforcement of standards
-Improved quality
-Improved data accessibility
-Reduced program maintenance
Costs/Risks of Database Approach
-Need Database Administrators
-Installation and management cost and complexity (higher upfront cost)
-Conversion cost(file system to database)
-Need for explicit back-up and recovery
-Organizational conflict

Roles
-Database Administrator
-performance
-enforce policies and standards – updates
-Systems Analyst
-working with end users to define data requirements
-Systems Programmer
-takes design programs from systems analyst and writes programs