Phases of Database Design

Phases of Database Design

Comparison and contrast of the phases of database design

Out of the three phases of a database, each database design bears its unique roles and responsibilities. Together, they are interrelated in such a way that the primary database informs the following in various ways. For instance, the first database design that should be considered in implementing a design is the conceptual database design. This database design entails the development of a conceptual data model of the system to be modeled (Connolly & Begg, 2005). Therefore, this model is developed with the aid of information extracted from the users’ specification template. The conceptual phase is then followed by the logical database design, which involves the development of a logical data model of the system to be modeled (Connolly & Begg, 2005). Lastly, the physical database involves the designer deciding how the database should be implemented.

There are some differences between these three database designs. For instance, while the conceptual database design does not incorporate any physical element, the local model is developed after learning the DBMS structure, which is a physical element. The DBMS may be relational, network, or object-oriented. Also, the physical model entails the physical attributes of the database as it entails identifying the target DBMS system (Connolly & Begg, 2005). The other difference is that while the conceptual model is tested against users’ specifications, the logical model uses a technique identified as normalization in the testing of the accuracy of the model.

The bottom-up and top-down design approaches

The bottom-up design technique contains fundamental attributes that represent relationships between entities. An example of a process that utilizes the bottom-up approach is the normalization process. This is because the process entails the identification of required characteristics that are subsequently aggregated into normalized relations anchored on functional dependencies (Kung et al., 2013). On the other hand, the top-down measure is considered for the design of compound databases. The approach starts by designing a few high-level entities and relationships, followed by successful readjustment of the entities as one moves to lower levels of the database system. Despite this variation, the bottom-up design approach is essential in developing simple databases with a few attributes (Kung et al., 2013). This is because the approach necessitates easy identification of functional dependencies between the various dependencies.

References

Connolly, T. M., & Begg, C. E. (2005). Database systems: a practical approach to design, implementation, and management. Pearson Education.

Kung, H. J., Kung, L., & Gardiner, A. (2013). Comparing top-down with bottom-up approaches: Teaching data modeling. Information Systems Education Journal, 11(1), 14.

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10.6 Compare and contrast the three phases of database design.
Part 1 (60%)
A) Complete Exercise 10.6 on page 325 in the Connolly text. Include a comprehensive explanation of each phase.
B) Explain how the bottom-up design approach differs from the top-down design approach. Which approach do you believe should be used to design a simple database with a relatively small number of attributes and why?

Include the questions with your answers.

The submission should demonstrate your understanding of the assigned material.

The content must be original and include supporting sentences using the terms, concepts, and theories from the assigned readings and other material (optional). The submission must paraphrase the referenced material and restrict the use of direct quotes (copy and paste) to less than 15% of the submission (the grade will be impacted if this limit is exceeded).

There are writing guidelines in the syllabus – use good judgment, and the submission must be well organized. Provide citations and references in APA style.
Name your document Last Name_Assignment4 (i.e., Smith_Assignment4).