The Proper Sequence Of Activities In Design

Awrite The Proper Sequence Of Activities In The Design Of A Vide

Write the proper sequence of activities in the design of a video rental database. The design must support all rental activities, customer payment tracking, employee work schedules, and track which employees checked out the videos to customers. After completing the sequence, update the ERD to ensure that the database design can be successfully implemented. Ensure that the design is normalized properly and supports the required transactions. Implement the solution using Microsoft Access, populate the database with proper data to ensure data integrity. Submit a Word document with parts a and b, including diagrams created in Visio pasted into Word, as well as the completed Access database file. Compress the Word document and database into a single file before submission.

Paper For Above instruction

The process of designing a video rental database involves a systematic sequence of activities that ensure the creation of a robust, normalized, and functional database capable of supporting all necessary operations, including rental transactions, payment tracking, employee scheduling, and auditing of employee checkouts. This comprehensive process spans from requirements analysis to physical implementation, with critical steps involved in modeling, normalization, schema development, and testing.

1. Requirements Analysis:

The initial step involves gathering detailed requirements from stakeholders, including understanding the business processes associated with video rentals. This includes identifying the entities involved—such as movies, customers, employees, rentals, and payments—and the specific activities they perform. For instance, rental activities encompass checkouts and returns, payments involve billing and refunds, and employee schedules pertain to shift management. Clarifying these requirements ensures the database design addresses all operational needs.

2. Conceptual Design Using ERD:

The next step is creating a high-level Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) based on the gathered requirements. Starting with the initial ERD, which usually includes entities such as Customer, Video, Employee, Rental, and Payment, the designer ensures all necessary attributes and relationships are identified. For example, the Rental entity should link Customers to Videos, with attributes recording rental date and due date, while the Employee entity should be associated with each rental for tracking who processed the checkout.

3. Extending the ERD for Complete Functionality:

The ERD should be expanded to capture additional requirements like employee work schedules and tracking which employees checked out the videos. This involves adding entities such as Employee Schedule and a relationship between Rental and Employee (to track which employee handled each transaction). Incorporating attributes like payment amount, payment date, and payment method ensures comprehensive tracking of customer payments.

4. Normalization:

Once the conceptual ERD is complete, normalization processes are applied to eliminate redundancy and ensure data integrity. This involves converting the ER model into a set of normalized tables—usually up to the Third Normal Form (3NF)—where each table has a primary key, and relationships are mediated via foreign keys. For instance, Customers are stored separately from Payments, which include a foreign key linking back to Customers, preventing data duplication.

5. Logical and Physical Design:

Further refinement involves translating the ERD into logical schema diagrams suitable for implementation in Microsoft Access. This includes defining data types for each attribute, setting primary keys, creating foreign key relationships, and establishing referential integrity constraints. This step ensures that the schema supports all rental activities, payments, employee scheduling, and audit tracking.

6. Implementation in Microsoft Access:

With the logical design in place, the next activity is creating the database in MS Access. Tables are built with defined fields, primary keys, and relationships. Indices and validation rules are implemented to enhance data integrity. For example, enforcing data types like date and currency ensures proper data entry. Users are provided with forms for data entry and reports for tracking rentals, payments, and schedules.

7. Populating Test Data:

After setup, the database needs to be populated with sample data that cover all functional scenarios—such as multiple rentals per customer, various payment methods, and employee shift records. This process helps verify that referential integrity is maintained and that the system supports all transactions appropriately.

8. Testing and Validation:

The final activity involves testing all functionalities—rentals, payments, employee schedules—by executing test cases to confirm the system responds correctly. Errors or inconsistencies identified during testing are corrected by updating schema constraints or data validation rules.

9. Documentation and Submission:

The complete project involves documenting the sequence of activities in a Word document, including the ERD diagrams created in Visio. This document, along with the Access database file containing the populated data, is compressed and submitted as a single file per instructions.

In conclusion, designing a comprehensive video rental database requires a disciplined approach starting from requirements analysis to physical implementation, ensuring normalization and data integrity at each step. Proper documentation and testing further ensure that the system is robust, scalable, and capable of supporting all intended business activities efficiently.

References

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6. Microsoft. (2022). Getting Started with Microsoft Access. Microsoft Support.

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