The Global Data Model Articulates and Design - Assignment Example

?Introduction This study is a discussion of the design and architecture of the global data model of a large or a medium size organization. It involves three different applications, which are of great interest to the organization. It therefore leads to the design and development of three Entity Relationship Diagrams for the different applications after which it develops the global data model. The final stage is the mapping of the Global Model to the other applications. The mapping will be able to show the relationship that exists between different entities within the organization. Company Selection The company selected for this project is Budget Transportation firm. It is a car rental company based in the USA. As a car hire organization, Budget Car Hire Company requires various systems to manage its operations. The company has branches all over the world and booking can be made directly via branched or online through the company’s website and agent websites. Three Proposed Applications In this report, three proposed applications that fulfill the companies’ needs will be discussed. Specifically, the three applications are to facilitate transactions and operations. The applications are: Direct Renting from braches. Online booking system. Car purchasing system. The systems will have to be integrated into a single database and network for the purpose of data access and processing. This is the function of the data modeling process. Brief overview of the Applications Direct renting from braches This application describes the transaction where the client goes directly to the companies’ branches and asks for a car to rent. Depending on the availability of car, the customer has to provide staff with his licenses, bank card number and personal information such as name, age and address. A customer must also buy an insurance package only then, a member of staff will enter the information n the system and give back an invoice along with the car keys. Online booking system The online booking system is an application that will enable customers to do car reservation online through Budget website. The online booking should be able to process the booking and produce the corresponding confirmation message or travel vouchers to the applicant. The customer must fill a form on Budgets website that provides the company with his/her information like name, age, address and other personal and paying information. Most importantly, the type of car, pick up and return time and date, location. The website calculates the price for the selected vehicle for the specified period. After that, customers receive an email confirmation. Car purchasing system The third application is for car purchasing, where employees in the logistics department Budget gets to interact with different car vendors. The Budget employee has to select the car type, color, model, price and quantity. After that the application generates the name of the buyer (Budget), seller (vendor), purchasing date and time and the total price of the transaction including the cars specifications, quantity and date of manufacture. Key Data Required for Each Application The systems require various data items because they all manage different data and processes. Each database will have various datasets. Of course, some of the data sets will have common data fields shared between themselves (Heath and Bizer 36). The databases for each application will have local model with entity relationships specifically between the entities in them. Overall, the local models will be linked into a larger model, the global data model. The global data model will link the three databases in such a way that the three applications have relationships with each other through the relationships in their entities. Direct renting from braches Direct renting from braches application will have the following data entities: Entity Attribute RENTAL RENTAL_NO Primary Key (PK), CUST_ID foreign key (FK), RENTAL_TIME, RENTAL_DATE, PICKUP_DATE, RETURN_DATE, PICKUP_TIME, RETURN_TIME, CAR_ID (FK), PRICE_PAID, RENTAL_INVOICE, RETURN_LOCATION, INSURANCE, RENTAL_STATUS (FK), COMPUTER_NO (FK). RENTAL_STATUS RENTAL_STATUS (PK) PAYMENT RENTAL_NO (FK), PAYMENT_TYPE (FK), AUCT. PAYMENT_TYPE PAYMENT_TYPE (FK). CUSTOMER CUST_ID (PK), CUST_FIRST_NAME, CUST_SUR_NAME, CUST_ADDRESS, CUST_MOBILE_NUMBER, CUST_EMAIL, CUST_DATE_OF_BIRTH, CUST_BANK_CARD_NUMBER. CAR CAR_ID (PK), CAR_TYPE (FK), CAR_STATUS (FK), CAR_COLOR, CAR_MODEL, CAR_PRICE_PER_DAY, CAR_REGISTRATION_NO. CAR_TYPE CAR_TYPE (PK), CAR_NAME, CAR_PRODUCER. CAR_STATUS CAR_STATUS (PK) STAFF STAFF_ID (PK), STAFF_NAME, STAFF _ADDRESS, STAFF _MOBILE_NUMBER, STAFF _EMAIL, STAFF_AGE, STAFF _NATIONALITY, STAFF _GENDER, BRANCH_NO (FK). BRANCH BRANCH_NO (PK), BRANCH_ADDRESS, BRANCH_PHONE_NUMBER. STAFF_COMPUTER STAFF_ID (FK), COMPUTER_NO (FK). COMPUTER COMPUTER_NO (PK), BRANCH_NO (FK). Table 1: Entities for Direct renting from braches Online booking system The Online booking application will have the following data Entities: Entity Attribute ONLINE_BOOKING_ORDER BOOKING_ORDER _NO (PK), CUST_ID (FK), BOOKING_TIME, BOOKING _DATE, PICKUP_DATE, RETURN_DATE, PICKUP_TIME, RETURN_TIME, PICKUP_LOCATION, RETURN_LOCATION, CAR_ID (FK), PRICE_PAID, BOOKING_CONFIRMATION, INSURANCE, BOOKING_STATUS (FK), BRANCH_NO (FK), STAFF_ID (FK). BOOKING_STATUS BOOKING _STATUS (PK) PAYMENT BOOKING_ORDER _NO (FK), PAYMENT_TYPE (FK). PAYMENT_TYPE PAYMENT_TYPE (PK). CUSTOMER CUST_ID (PK), CUST_LOGIN_NAME, CUST_FIRST_NAME, CUST_SUR_NAME, CUST_ADDRESS, CUST_LICENCE_NUMBER, CUST_MOBILE_NUMBER, CUST_EMAIL, CUST_DATE_OF_BIRTH, CUST_BANK_CARD_NUMBER. CAR CAR_ID (PK), CAR_TYPE (FK), CAR_STATUS (FK), CAR_COLOR, CAR_MODEL, CAR_PRICE_PER_DAY, CAR_REGISTRATION_NO. CAR_TYPE CAR_TYPE (PK), CAR_NAME, CAR_PRODUCER. CAR_STATUS CAR_STATUS (PK) STAFF STAFF_ID (PK), STAFF_NAME, STAFF _ADDRESS, STAFF _MOBILE_NUMBER, STAFF _EMAIL, STAFF_AGE, STAFF _NATIONALITY, STAFF _GENDER, BRANCH_NO (FK). BRANCH BRANCH_NO (PK), BRANCH_ADDRESS, BRANCH_PHONE_NUMBER. Table 2: Entities for Online booking system Car purchasing system Car purchasing application will have the following entities Entity Attribute PURCHASING PURCHASING_NO (PK), VENDOR_STAFF_ID (FK), STAFF_ID (FK), PURCHASING_DATE, PURCHASING_TIME, TOTAL_PRICE. PURCHASING_DETAILS PURCHASING_NO (FK), CAR_ID (FK), QUANTITY. PAYMENT PURCHASING_NO (FK), PAYMENT_TYPE (FK), AUCT. PAYMENT_TYPE PAYMENT_TYPE (PK). BUDGET_STAFF STAFF_ID (PK), STAFF_NAME, STAFF _ADDRESS, STAFF _MOBILE_NUMBER, STAFF _EMAIL, STAFF_AGE, STAFF _NATIONALITY, STAFF _GENDER CAR_VENDORS VENDORS_ID (PK), VENDORS_ADDRESS, VENDORS_PHONE_NUMBER, VENDORS_EMAIL, VENDORS_MANAGER. VENDOR_STAFF VENDOR _STAFF_ID (PK), VENDOR _STAFF_NAME, VENDOR _STAFF _ADDRESS, VENDOR _STAFF _MOBILE_NUMBER, VENDOR _STAFF _EMAIL, VENDOR _STAFF_AGE, VENDOR _STAFF _NATIONALITY, VENDOR _STAFF _GENDER. CAR CAR_ID (PK), CAR_TYPE (FK), CAR_STATUS (FK), CAR_COLOR, CAR_MODEL, CAR_PRICE, VENDORS_ID (FK). CAR_TYPE CAR_TYPE (PK), CAR_NAME, CAR_PRODUCER. CAR_STATUS CAR_STATUS (PK) Table 3: Entities for Car purchasing system Shared Data There are common fields in the three systems in the local data models. This means that the datasets will share shared the data for the purpose of relationships. The shared data include: Entity Data Fields STAFF STAFF_ID (PK), STAFF_NAME, STAFF _ADDRESS, STAFF _MOBILE_NUMBER, STAFF _EMAIL, STAFF_AGE, STAFF _NATIONALITY, STAFF _GENDER. CAR CAR_ID (PK), CAR_TYPE (FK), CAR_STATUS (FK), CAR_COLOR, CAR_MODEL. CAR_TYPE CAR_TYPE (PK), CAR_NAME, CAR_PRODUCER. CAR_STATUS CAR_STATUS (PK) PAYMENT PAYMENT_TYPE (FK), AUCT. PAYMENT_TYPE PAYMENT_TYPE (PK). Table 4: Shared data among the three applications Received Data Taking the Budget as the sending and receiving point, the system receives data in different forms depending on the functionalities. Direct Renting from braches In this application member of staff receives data from customers such as (customer personal information, payment information, car characteristics and Renting period) then puts them in the computer Online booking system It receives data from customers in the global reach. It receives the booking information such as personal information, car characteristics, Renting period and paying information which customers log in the website and have access to the company online platform. The System receives data from the customers about their booking order. Of course, they have to confirm the availability of the cars, which they ought to hire from the Budget. Car purchasing system Sent Data After receiving data from the various points, the systems have to send out information in response to the data input. Direct Renting from braches Human resources produce reports in various forms. It shows the results of employee training, including the course attended, the marks attained, grade and recommendations. It also shows the results of salary calculations and deductions, leading to the payment of the salaries. The other set of data it shows is the employee records such as the departments, the grades, position and salary scale. Online booking system The online Booking System sends out the results of data searches to the customers. The data includes the available cars and their status. They enable the customers to do booking if the cars are available. Car purchasing system The car hire system gives the financial information about the system. Essentially, this is information on whether the Budget makes profits or not. Entity Relationship Diagrams: ER Diagram 1: Direct renting from braches Figure 1: ER Diagram for direct renting from braches Application ER Diagram 2: Online booking system Figure 2: ER Diagram for Online booking application ER Diagram 3: Car purchasing system Figure 3: ER Diagram for Car purchasing application Global Data Model for the three applications: Figure 4: Global Data Model Design Decisions in the Global Data Model The design of the global data model articulates all the business processes, which either receives data or acts as the data presenters. It enables the Budget Company to make effective use of the data with strong, reliable relationships between the entities. It uses the Entity Relationship Diagram as the major tool in the Erwin Designer. It is the preferred tool, which enables the designers to develop the model of the data required by the business and in the management of the business processes. It has the graphical (visual) representation of the information needs of the application. The global ER Diagram shows the link which exist between the data entities, the processes in the Budget Car Hire company and the designer option to obtain the business needs. As it identifies and describes the data items and how they are related to one another, the global data model represents the data movement from one department to another. It also shows the contents of the underlying database, on which the three applications run. Essentially, the global model shows how the three applications communicate with each other through a common database. Further to that, the Entity Relations model does not limit its data access to a specific local domain. The common link allows each entity from whichever local data model to receive any data entity and attribute whether it belongs to the online booking, direct renting or purchase application. As an illustration, the ER for the Online Booking application is able to link entities such as booking order, customers and staff. In the global data model, the three ER diagrams share links between the different entities through the definition of the relationship and integrity enforced between them. Since not all entities have primary key attributes, the linking of the three ERs into the global data model does not necessarily use the primary key attributes. It therefore implies that once the client has viewed the available vehicles on to purchase, he or she can proceed to get the data for the vendors, make orders and do a purchase. It is still possible for the client to decide and make no order at all. In a similar way, the three ER diagrams for online booking, direct car hire and the Car purchase, have the same attribute "STAFF". The global model simplifies the design of the database model by presenting only one table "STAFF" instead of three. This is a good example of the shared data between the three local data models. For the customer to pick up the car to purchase or to hire directly, he or she has to send the order to one of the branches of the Budget Car Hire Company. The staff members of Budget in the branch receive the request and proceeds with the rest of the processing. The outputs of the processes are received as printable voucher or receipt. The online booking therefore require the staff to process the booking order, Rental requires the staff to allocate available cars while car purchase require staff to sell the cars and receive payment. There are optional fields that do not affect the relationship among the various entities in the global model. These attributes include Contact Details and personal. Mapping of the Global data Model and other Applications The design of the global data model took place in a sequence of activities. For the purpose of normalization of the tables, the sequence can be repeated iteratively until the data description is satisfactory. The first step is to identify the data tables (entities). This depends on the purpose of the application that runs on the database and depends on the table. The second step is to develop the relationship between all the entities. This goes along with the selection and entry of the attributes related to the Budget Car Hire Company. The next step is to give a definition od the domain. The three applications exist in three different domains, even though they are in the same database. The mapping takes place by linking the three databases through the common unique identifiers. The global data model therefore has three links between the three domains as shown below: Figure 5: Representation of the Global Data Model The ER diagram produced from the domain mapping above can be converted into a design of a relational database or in Erwin Modeler. This takes place diuring the design of each of the threes separate applications in the individual domains (Blaha 43). The design of the Database leads to a transfomation such that the applications are able to acces any data element from any of the domains so long as the mapping is active. From the ER Diagrams, the final stage is to create the mapping of the tables and the detailed domain mappings that automates the global data model. The creation of the global data model needs the definition of every important data attributes of the tables. Because most of the attributes shared similar properties such as the data types, it was important to link the attributes that have the same properties. This makes it easier to define the global domains with all of the attributes. Benefits of the Global data Model For the Company The global data model is very essential for a company like the Budget Car Hire Company. It links all the database entities into as single domain, yet it provides necessary access control to each of the data through access control. The Global Data Model For the Budget Car Hire Company leads to a consistent design of the data entities and attributes (Blaha 65). It creates uniformity and integrity in the design of the tables to reduce redundancy in the data design. The domain creation and management is important so that there is no creation of unnecessary databases and redundant tables. Without the use of Entity relationship diagrams, there is a risk of existences of duplicated data. The global data model further assists in the creation and management of all available domains in the Erwin Modeler. The design of the global model can be used to design and map the domains while setting insignificant properties such as the format of the data, size of the data and whether it can contain null data or not. The global data model merged two tables such as the STAFF from the Car Hire application and PAYMENT from the Online Booking Application. It also merged the CARS table from the Direct Rental system and VENDORS table from the Car Purchase system. The same can be set to be able to contain null data and to have a default value of a certain character contents. The global data models support the creation of domains by use of Entity Relationship Diagrams in Erwin Modeler. The data entities uniquely designed with primary keys to control the data entry in the tables and ensure that there are no chances of data duplication or corruption in the rows of ay table. The global data model ensures that the entities are fully described and have every important attributes. It also takes care of the definition of the three domains and the larger global domain. The primary key is used to define the relationship between the attributes and the integrity available (Baldoni 49). Of course, in many cases, the integrity do not exist especially where the data types of the attributes are not similar. Each of the entities in the Global Data Model of the Budget car Hire Company has primary keys. However, the creation of primary keys is not mandatory. It is possible for some tables to exist without the creation of primary keys. The primary key fields in every entity and in the mandatory fields, null values are not permitted. Finally, the global model assists the management with a systematic way of managing the data since each of the entities are logically. Works Cited Blaha, Michael. Patterns of Data Modeling. CRC Press,2010. Heath, Tom and Bizer, Christian, Linked Data: Evolving the Web Into a Global Data Space. New York: Morgan & Claypool Publishers, 2011. Baldoni, Roberto. Global Data Management. New York: OS Press, 2006. Read More