ACCT6001 - Database Management System: TWHI Case Study Report

This report presents a case study on a Database Management System (DBMS) for Torrens We Help Inc. (TWHI), an educational institution. It begins with an introduction to databases and DBMS, followed by an overview of TWHI and the project's objectives. The report justifies the use of a database by highlighting its advantages, such as controlling data redundancy, enabling data sharing, ensuring data consistency, and enhancing data security. A detailed database design, including an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) and table structures for employees, subjects, teacher-subjects, and teaching staff, is provided. The report also discusses crucial IT controls like access and concurrency controls. Finally, it concludes by summarizing the benefits of implementing a database system for TWHI to improve its operational efficiency and data management.

Running head: DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Database Management System: A Case Study of Torrens
We Help Inc.
Name of the Student
Name of the University

1DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Table of Contents
1. Introduction:................................................................................................................................2
1.1 The Overview of the Organization:.......................................................................................2
1.2 Overview of the Project:........................................................................................................3
2. Justification for the Use of Database:..........................................................................................3
3. Database Design:.........................................................................................................................5
4. IT controls:...................................................................................................................................9
5. Conclusion:................................................................................................................................10
Bibliography:.................................................................................................................................11

2DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
1. Introduction:
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.

3DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
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.
i. 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.
ii. 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

4DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
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.
iii. 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.
iv. 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.

5DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
3. Database Design:
Figure 1: The Entity Relationship Diagram
(Source: Created by Author)
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

6DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
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.
Table: Employee
Attribute Data type Constraints
employeeID Number Primary Key
Title Short Text None
firstName Short Text None
middleName Short Text None
lastName Short Text None
birthDate Date/Time None
Address Short Text None
phoneNumber Number None
mobileNumber Number None
dateHired Date/Time None
dateTerminated Date/Time None
TFN Number None
Department Short Text None
Location Short Text None

7DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Employee
emplo
yeeID
Ti
tle
firstN
ame
middle
Name
lastN
ame
birth
Date
Add
ress
phoneN
umber
mobileN
umber
date
Hired
dateTer
minated
T
F
N
Depar
tment
Loca
tion
1 A Jack Moa 7/10/1
991
Main
Stree
t
1234567
8
1234567
8
3/10/
2017
1 A Main
Cam
pus
2 B Johny Roger Feder
er
4/20/1
989
Cam
ac
Stree
t
234567 765432 5/23/
2016
6/5/2018 2 B Main
Cam
pus
3 A Mia Sand
ers
6/20/1
992
Ama
harst
Stree
t
98765 123456 5/23/
2016
3 A Main
Cam
pus
4 C John Wick 11/9/1
991
Main
Stree
t
345678 765432 5/10/
2016
4 F Seco
nd
Cam
pus
5 C Sunny Hodg
e
12/29/
1986
Nels
on
Stree
t
123456 654322 3/10/
2017
6/5/2018 5 A Seco
nd
Cam
pus
6 B Luka Modr
ich
10/15/
1992
Cam
ac
Stree
t
987653 1234567 3/10/
2017
6 E Main
Cam
pus
7 D Madd
y
Simpso
ns
Jonat
hna
11/9/1
991
Ama
harst
Stree
t
234567 76543 5/17/
2018
7 F Seco
nd
Cam
pus
8 B Emily Man
dy
12/29/
1996
Nels
on
Stree
t
7654321 1234567
8
5/17/
2018
8 E Main
Cam
pus
9 A Rick Mort
y
11/1/1
991
Cam
ac
Stree
t
982345 6542345
67
1/27/
2018
1/7/2018 9 A Main
Cam
pus
10 E Christ
opher
Nola
n
6/16/1
992
Main
Stree
t
5431345
6
4566711 5/23/
2016
10 E Main
Cam
pus
11 as
d
0 0 0

8DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Table: Subject
Attribute Data type Constraints
subjectCode Number Primary Key
subjectName Short Text None
Subject
subjectCode subjectName
1 Maths
2 Physics
3 Chemistry
4 Geography
5 History
6 English
7 French
8 Polytical Science
9 Applied Mathematics
10 Biology
Table: teacherSubject
Attribute Data type Constraints
subjectCode Number Primary Key, Foreign Key
employeeID Number Primary Key, Foreign Key

9DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
teacherSubject
subjectCode employeeID
1 10
2 4
5 2
10 1
Table: teachingStaff
Attribute Data type Constraints
employeeID Number Primary Key, Foreign Key
campusLocation Short text None
contactDetails Short text None
empStatus Short text None
teachingStaff
employeeID campusLocation contactDetails empStatus
1 Main Campus Father-1234567 full-time
2 Second Campus Mother-98765432 part-time
4 Main Campus Wife-123456 sessional
10 Main Campus Husband-8765432 full-time
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

10DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
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.

11DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Bibliography:
Achpal, A., Kumar, V. B., & Mahesh, K. (2016). Modeling Ontology Semantic
Constraints in Relational Database Management System. In Proceedings of the International
MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientists (Vol. 1).
Arasu, A., Babcock, B., Babu, S., Cieslewicz, J., Datar, M., Ito, K., ... & Widom, J.
(2016). Stream: The stanford data stream management system. In Data Stream Management (pp.
317-336). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Elmasri, R., & Navathe, S. (2016). Fundamentals of database systems. London: Pearson.
Gouhar, A. (2017). Database Management System. International Journal of Engineering
Science, 11766.
Gubanov, M., Jermaine, C., Gao, Z., & Luo, S. (2016). Hybrid: A large-scale linear-
relational database management system. In MIT Annual DB Conference.
Souza, R., Silva, V., Oliveira, D., Valduriez, P., Lima, A. A., & Mattoso, M. (2015).
Parallel execution of workflows driven by a distributed database management system. In
ACM/IEEE Conference on Supercomputing, Poster.
Yunus, M. A. M., Krishnan, S. K. G., Nawi, N. M., & Surin, E. S. M. (2017). Study on
Database Management System Security Issues. JOIV: International Journal on Informatics
Visualization, 1(4-2), 192-194.