Database Design For Torrens We Help Inc.: Requirements And Implementation

Overview of the Organization

The database is the technology that stores the data into a database and provide the option of retrieving data from it later (Gouhar, 2017).  Database Management System is the application that handle the process of storing, manipulating and retrieval of data from the database. The Microsoft Access Database has been used for crating the database on the basis of the case study of Torrens We Help Inc.

The study is based on the implementation of the database in MS Access Application. The database is developed on the conditions and business case of TWHI. The report consist of the overview of TWHI. An ERD or Entity Relationship Diagram has been generated to provide an idea regarding the design of the database. The study also consists of the information regarding the IT controls needed for protecting the database.

1.1 The Overview of the Organization:

The case study is based on the organization named, TWHI or Torrens We Help Inc. The organization is an education institution which is not for profit private organization. The organization is well known for its initiation of providing online farming education around the world. Most numbers of TWHI students are from Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

The organization is currently interested in working with the industries, communities and businesses as partners. The purpose of the partnership will be providing several learning opportunities and experiences so that the students can easily enjoy the learning process. The organization is widely reputed as the institution which provide higher education to the people who otherwise could not afford it. The government of Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia provide the payment of many of the students who are citizens of respective countries.

TWHI is currently using a spread sheet software for recording and tracking its employee’s data. The organization’s HR or human resource department is currently having issues in accessing fresh academic and staff information.

1.2 Overview of the Project:

The project is based on the requirements of the information regarding the HR processes. The project is generally based on the database management system. The database will be developed based on the processes and constraints of business process of TWHI. There are two options for implementing the project. The organization can choose an in-house system that will be implemented in the organization computer server. Otherwise, it can be implemented in the cloud based system. In-house based Access database system will be best suited for the organization’s HR department.

2. Justification for the Use of Database:

The database is considered to be the most vital tool for storing and retrieving data. The database will be used for the following advantages it will deliver to Torrens We Help Inc.

1. Controlling data redundancy: The HR department uses different software for completing the processes, each of the software holds different files. This results into duplication of data. The database will allow the HR department to store all the data into one place (Souza et al., 2015). The modern database management systems implements various checks and configuration to prevent data duplication.
2. Data sharing: The database management system allows the authorized users to share data to other people in the organization. Torrens We Help Inc. must employ an administrator who will be responsible for managing the database system. The administrators provides rights to the users of the system such as allow access to whole database or a portion of the database (Elmasri & Navathe, 2016). The biggest advantage of the database is that it allows various users to access a specific data in the database simultaneously. Another big advantage is that different software programs can access the database. This not only saves the memory but also improves the organization reliability on the information.

• Data consistency: The database management system automatically implements the data consistency by aiding the data redundancy. Suppose, the set of information of an employee appear once in the whole database. The HR department want to update a specific information of an employee (Gubanov et al., 2016). In that case, the database will update the database immediately and the updated value will be available to all the software applications connected to the database. It is easy for the database system to enforce consistency if the database has already implemented controlled redundancy.

1. Data security: Security to the organization data is another reason behind the selection of implementing a database into the Torrens We Help Inc. environment. The database management system allows the users to create forms and reports in an easier and faster manner (Souza et al., 2015). A structured database has various configuration aspects that can prevent any unauthorized user to access unintended data. Suppose, the application HR department is using is hacked. No matter how the hackers try if they cannot breach the DBMS security checks, no data will be revealed to the hackers.
2. 3. Database Design:

The ERD showed in the figure 1, consist of four entities. All of the entities have primary keys. The teaching staff is also part of the employee that is why the teaching staff entity’s primary key is actually the foreign key of employee table. The subject a teacher teaches can be identified using the teacher subject entity. This entity has a composite primary key. The employee code refers to the primary key of teaching staff entity not the employee entity. If the employee is not a teaching staff then he or she cannot teach a subject. The subject entity has only two attributes, primary key which is subject code and subject name.

As one employee may or may not be one teacher, the relation between the employee and teaching staff is one to one multiplicity with 0 or one cardinality. One subject can be taught by many teachers but a teacher will teach only one subject, that is why the relation is one to many. One subject may be or may not be taught at the institution, but a subject which is currently taught to the students must be listed in the subject entity.

4. IT controls:

Access Control: Access controls is considered to be basic functionality a database management system must include (Yunus et al., 2017). The purpose of the access control is to protect the data stored within the database from falling in the hands of unauthorized users.

Concurrency Control: Refers to the class of controls used in database management systems (DBMS) to ensure that transactions are processed in an atomic, consistent, isolated and durable manner (ACID) (Arasu et al., 2016).  This implies that only serial and recoverable schedules are permitted, and that committed transactions are not discarded when undoing aborted transactions.

5. Conclusion:

From the above study, it can be concluded that the database is a crucial element of any business in order to make the business process more convenient. The database is not designed to hold the static data like goods or staff, but it can hold more dynamic data like process status and outcome. The database will allow the HR department of Torrens We Help Inc. to access all the information of the employees.

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