Database Design - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... Furthermore, the information model comprises of the customer and the details of the meter including the intricate technical details as well as the maintenance schedules apart from the measurements that quantify for billing. This is necessary for the effective management of the information system and conduct regular checks on the meters in order to prevent errors in the readings leading to unwanted reconciliations for the organization.
The conceptual design of the database model also includes the use of the billing efficiently both during the period of operation for the meter as well as at the time of removal and installation of the new meter. This method although straight forward in words is actually a complex procedure as it not only involves the company and the customer but also the supplier for the meter that is installed at the customer site. The need for policy compliance and related issues make the process complex and the information model should address this.
The conceptual design being the high level specification of the information model to be deployed without any system restrictions into account or technical considerations, the conceptual design also comprises of the following at a strategic level implementation

1. The billing section to be notified of any new changes in the metering for a given customer once the change is completed.
2. The information system should account for the price of the gas that is dynamic on a day-to-day basis. The gas price being fixed using a dynamic bidding process in the UK energy market should be accounted for whilst calculating the bills and any reconciliation to the customers.
3. The information model should also include the dynamic transportation charges for the gas from the source to the customer, which is additional to the gas pricing on a day-to-day basis for the quantity of gas being transported every day.

Logical Design:

The logical design is implemented using the Entity Relationship diagrams as follows

Entities:
The entities identified in the logical design of the application include
1. Customer
2. Validation
3. Meter
4. Supplier
5. Billing and Reconciliation

Among the aforementioned the first four are the primary entities in the database with the Billing and Reconciliation forming the transaction in the system. This makes it clear that any trigger implemented with regards to the finance processing will reflect upon the transactions on billing and reconciliation entity only. The relationships between the entities identified are discussed below followed by the entity relationship diagram adhering to the UML standards.

The customer being the first and important element of the system identified is placed central to establish the relationship with other entities based upon the customer.

Customer - Meter: the relationship between the customer and the meter is deemed to be 1N. This ...Download file to see next pagesRead More