Web Technologies & Management Systems - Assignment Example

Question The wide spread use of database management systems coupled with web technologies allows Organisations to collect maintain and sell vast amounts of private personal data fast and cheaply. Millions of credit-card transactions take place in the world, each, carrying private information. Millions of personal data items are routed daily to corporate databases and data warehouses through sales calls and credit checks. Millions of consumer records are collected and updated daily on the web. For businesses, such data are an important resource, but for individuals, such large data pools and the ways they are used threaten a fundamental human right: privacy. Considering the above paragraph coupled with your own views on the use of databases and data warehouses, argue in support of the use of such technologies, and then argue in support of those who believe their unregulated use is a violation of ones privacy. The modern day technology has facilitated the mankind in more than one way. They have enabled achieving and doign things that were being done in days, and they are matter of hours and minutes now. The use of credit cards and online shopping purposes are one of them. They have facilitated and changed the entire concept of shopping and purchases. People do not have to go to the markets and shops physically rather online stores, online purchases and online orders make their day. These are not just limited to one category rather ranging from food to groceries, to digital devices and other similar elements that are in use in our daily life. The downside of this is the fact that entire record can be traced out, with everything going digital and the internet medium being most fragile and directly exposed to all kinds of threats and attacks, the credit card scams are quite common where people’s credit cards are hacked and lots of amount is extracted from it. This is not just limited to the credit cards, rather other online sources are being targeted in the same manner. Apart from the financial embezzlements retrieving of other valuable information which can be possibly used for any purpose are possible through the inappropriate usage of credit cards. Hence credit card are a blessing yet can be a curse too if they land up in the wrong hands or are used without consideration of security check because in that case it will not only lead to financial dangers but also other potential threats to life property etc. (ii) Assuming that you are a consultant on the project team, building a data warehouse for a company of your choice (an example company), list the possible data sources from which you will bring the data 2 into your data warehouse. State clearly any assumptions that you will make. The data warehouse serves as the pivot of entire network in an online resource and data base, therefore the choice of data sources must be done wisely. Different methods and sources can be used to bring the data into the data ware house; these sources include the spread sheet which contains all the basic information about the items and data that is part of the entire project. Subject matter experts must be consulted for this purpose to make the right choice of data source material. Defining the business type, the clients , are important areas to be addressed. The designing of Data ware house according to XML design is another factor that can be integrated and made use of for the sources which will be used afterwards in the data warehouse. Within the data sources, the different layers usage is another option that is being made use of by many organizations. It is the warehouse sources which facilitate the usage of applications ahead. (iii) Using your company of choice example from above, explain the type of decision support applications that can benefit from implementation of a data warehouse. Within this context, what is the role of data mining? The usage of private cloud, public cloud or mix of these two (hybrid) of these two may be used. The decision support application allows easy and better usage of the warehouse sources. The data mining is an integral part of the data warehouse and it allows true and real transfer of information into concrete set. Besides, the data mining allows statistical analysis of the data and other all processes that are in the system. Question 2 Many software vendors such as IBM, Adobe and Microsoft offer ECM applications software solution to businesses. Using the Internet, search for two such vendors and check their ECM solution software products. Write a short summary of your findings. (Your summary should include some general as well as main points on what the products offer to businesses. If there are many such products listed by the two vendors of your choice, simply focus on one or two such products as you see appropriate. Do not forget to provide references.) (You may consider setting up a table to evaluate the enterprise application software products of the two vendors and make the comparison by considering the list of most valuable features in the products. You may also choose to assign scales to each feature in order to determine which products you would select from the vendors.) Blue Cielo is one of the vendors that provides ECM application software solutions. Their aim as expressed and narrated by them is to reduce the down time, improve the performances and working procedures, and provide ultimate benefit to the users and as well as the service providers especially in the cloud computing field( reference , http://www.bluecieloecm.com/) Vega is another name in the similar field that provides ECM solutions. They focus on providing solutions and services in a novel way which is based on the lines of innovation and creative entity considerations. They are compatible with the IBM solution services and many more similar solution providers. Question 4 (i) Explain the benefits from adopting a structured approach to analysis and design of an information system. A structured approach allows ease of work, less hassle, and quick recovery of data and files. The design is relatively easy and simple to craft as well which makes it easy and better both for the designer and the users to work with. Structured approach further enables addressing the queries and concerns in an organized manner. With non structured approach the information system would fail to produce the goods it is designed for. (ii) What fact finding methods and techniques are available to the systems analyst? Identify the strength and weaknesses of each of the methods. Different methods can be adopted and incorporated to find facts about system analysis, these include charts, diagrams, interviews, questionnaires, surveys, observations , and other forms research, each of them has its own advantage and limitation in some area. However these are the common methods of finding system analysis. (iii) A systems analyst uses a number of techniques including charts, diagrams etc. to document the operation of a system being investigated and as an aid to subsequent analysis and design. Identify and briefly describe those techniques that are most commonly used . The usage of chart and diagrams provide clear definition of what has been achieved and what is to be achieved, this can be done so through clear marking of the areas and processes undertaken, the data base installed and other important functions of the overall process. Question 5 Scenario The policy for admission to a University department dealing with applicants, who may possess Advanced levels, a part-professional qualification, or both, is as follows:  applicants with three advanced levels are eligible for a degree or HND place;  applicants with two advanced level are eligible only for an HND place;  applicants with a part-professional qualification only, are eligible only for a professional course;  applicants with both advanced levels and a part-professional qualification are eligible for a professional course or the course their advanced level qualifies them for. Course rejection letters are sent to applicants failing to satisfy the admission requirements. Construct a decision table for the above scenario. (You may make your own assumptions if necessary.) PART 2 (The topics for this section including Access 2010 Design- Using ‘Tenant Rental’ detail, see attached Fig. 1 (i) Normalise the data applying the first three rules; 1NF, 2NF & 3NF of normalisation. 1 NF : 1 bed room: features: garden , tennis court 2 NF : 2 bed room: Tub , Stn 3 NF: 3 bed room : tub, stn, railway stn, (ii) Construct the entity-relationship diagram at each step of normalisation. 1 NF : 1 bed room: features: garden , tennis court 2 NF : 2 bed room: Tub , Stn 3 NF: 3 bed room : tub, stn, railway stn, (iii) Explain briefly the role of entity-relationship diagram and the process of normalisation in a database design. Entity relationship diagram gives a holistic overview of which element is related to the other in what manner. The normalization function further enables arranging the tables and fields according to the organized pattern. The E-R diagram provides detail of which element is associated to other in what relation, thereby making it easier to design and handle the overall database system. Read More