Case Study: A database system for Tristan College.

(March 2022)

Design a database for Tristan College. Tristan College offers various programs and currently has
many students. The college wants to organize its data. You are required to design the database.
Many students seek admission in the college. The college has a number of departments and
students can be enrolled to these departments. The department also offers a number of courses
to the students, each with a different duration from the other. Each department has its H.O.D and
many teachers under him. The syllabus of each course is also defined. Teachers are recruited by
the college for teaching the said courses to the students. The teachers may have different
qualifications and experience. They may also teach different subjects if required. Each student in
the college has a unique ID. We need to store the names of the students studying in the college,
their residential address, date of birth. We also need to store information about the college like
the name, address, contact number, reference ID, departments of the college, name of the H.O.D,
number of teachers and students in the department. Also, the courses offered by the departments,
the syllabus, the duration and the course ID. We can also store information about the teachers
like their qualification, experience, name and subjects taught.

Note: Assumptions are allowed and you are allowed to include necessary
columns/attributes and tables if it is required.

For the above mentioned business details, you should do the following tasks.

No. Task Marks

Draw a Conceptual Diagram based on the case study

1 20
• Output
• Brief explanation on the diagram

Design an Entity – Relationship Diagram (ERD) and map the

entities with appropriate relationships
2 30
• Output
• Brief explanation on the diagram

Develop Physical Model Diagram and provide the necessary

information for Model (Relational Model - ensure data integrity).
3 30
• Output
• Brief explanation on the diagram
 Use Normalization and make sure your database design is
4 normalized properly. 20

Case Study: CyberTech University database (March 2022_RS)

Recently, the ministry has approved a new University in Malaysia. This university is mainly located
in Sabah. The response is overwhelming. Many students are enquiring about the various
programs that are offered in the University. Therefore, the University would like to design a
database to store the data in an organized manner. You are required to design the database
based on the requirements. In a University, there are several departments and each department
has a head of department who belongs to Faculty. Department have a name, phone extension,
specific mailing address and Students that belong to the department. Students can belong to only
one Department at a time and Department can have more than one or no Student. Students and
faculty have names and unique identification numbers with address, age, gender and other
information. Student studies different Courses offered by University. Faculty teaches
these Courses. In each semester one student can take more than one course and Faculty can
teach more than one courses. Faculty members can teach in multiple Departments. Each course
can be taught by many faculty members or no one. Faculty members are also working on multiple
research projects. These projects are funded by government and university. One project can have
more than one faculty member and one faculty member can work on more than one project.

Note: Assumptions are allowed and you are allowed to include necessary
columns/attributes and tables if it is required.

For the above mentioned business details, you should do the following tasks.

No. Task Marks

Draw a Conceptual Diagram based on the case study

1 20
• Output
• Brief explanation on the diagram

Design an Entity – Relationship Diagram (ERD) and map the

2 entities with appropriate relationships 30
• Output
• Brief explanation on the diagram
 Develop Physical Model Diagram and provide the necessary
3 information for Model (Relational Model - ensure data integrity). 30
• Output
• Brief explanation on the diagram
Use Normalization and make sure your database design is
4 normalized properly. 20

Case Study: A database system for the Baby Shark chain of pharmacies (Aug 2022)

The Baby Shark chain of pharmacies has offered to give you a free lifetime supply of medicine if
you design its database. Given the rising cost of health care, you agree. Here’s the information
that you gather:
Patients are identified by an SSN, and their names, addresses, and ages must be recorded.
Doctors are identified by an SSN. For each doctor, the name, speciality, and years of experience
must be recorded. Each pharmaceutical company is identified by name and has a phone number.
For each drug, the trade name and formula must be recorded. Each drug is sold by a given
pharmaceutical company, and the trade name identifies a drug uniquely from among the products
of that company. If a pharmaceutical company is deleted, you need not keep track of its products
any longer. Each pharmacy has a name, address, and phone number. Every patient has a primary
physician. Every doctor has at least one patient. Each pharmacy sells several drugs and has a
price for each. A drug could be sold at several pharmacies, and the price could vary from one
pharmacy to another. Doctors prescribe drugs for patients. A doctor could prescribe one or more
drugs for several patients, and a patient could obtain prescriptions from several doctors. Each
prescription has a date and a quantity associated with it. You can assume that, if a doctor
prescribes the same drug for the same patient more than once, only the last such prescription
needs to be stored. Pharmaceutical companies have long-term contracts with pharmacies. A
pharmaceutical company can contract with several pharmacies, and a pharmacy can contract
with several pharmaceutical companies. For each contract, you have to store a start date, an end
date, and the text of the contract. Pharmacies appoint a supervisor for each contract. There must
always be a supervisor for each contract, but the contract supervisor can change over the lifetime
of the contract.

Note: Assumptions are allowed and you are allowed to include necessary columns/attributes and
tables if it is required.
 For the above mentioned business details, you should do the following tasks.

No. Task Marks

Draw a Conceptual Diagram based on the case study

1 20
• Output
• Brief explanation on the diagram

Design an Entity – Relationship Diagram (ERD) and map the

2 entities with appropriate relationships 30
• Output
• Brief explanation on the diagram

Develop Physical Model Diagram and provide the necessary

3 information for Model (Relational Model - ensure data integrity). 30
• Output
• Brief explanation on the diagram
Use Normalization and make sure your database design is
4 normalized properly. 20

(Midterm ques – RS_Aug 2022)

Case study: A database system for a University (April 2023)

Consider the following set of requirements for a UNIVERSITY database that is used to
keep track of students' transcripts.

(a) The university keeps track of each student's name, student number, social security
number, current address and phone, permanent address and phone, birthdate, sex, class
(freshman, sophomore, ..., graduate), major department, minor department (if any), and
degree program (B.A., B.S., ..., Ph.D.). Some user applications need to refer to the city,
state, and zip of the student's permanent address, and to the student's last name. Both
social security number and student number have unique values for each student.

(b) Each department is described by a name, department code, office number, office
phone, and college. Both name and code have unique values for each department.

(c) Each course has a course name, description, course number, number of semester
hours, level, and offering department. The value of course number is unique for each
course.

(d) Each section has an instructor, semester, year, course, and section number. The
section number distinguishes different sections of the same course that are taught during
 the same semester/year; its values are 1, 2, 3, ..., up to the number of sections taught
during each semester.

(e) A grade report has a student, section, letter grade, and numeric grade (0, 1, 2, 3,
4 for F, D, C, B, A, respectively).

For the above mentioned business details, you should do the following tasks.

No. Task Marks

Design an Entity – Relationship Diagram (ERD) and map the

entities with appropriate relationships
1 30
• Output
• A brief explanation of the diagram

Use Normalization and make sure your database design is

2 normalized properly. 20

Case Study: A computer application online system for Taylors Services

(RS_April 2023)

A relational database is to be designed for this company- Taylors Solutions and Services
(TSS). It is a medium sized company dealing with applications of computers and services.
The Company delivers various products to its customers ranging from a single application
program, customized software and to complete installation of hardware. The Company
employs various experts, consultants and supporting staff. All personnel are employed on
long-term basis, i.e. there are no short-term or temporary staff. Although the Company is
somehow structured for administrative purposes (that is, it is divided into departments headed
by department managers) all projects are carried out in an inter-disciplinary way. For each
project, a project team is selected, grouping employees from different departments, and a
Project Manager (also an employee of the Company) is appointed who is entirely and
exclusively responsible for the control of the project, quite independently of the Company's
 hierarchy. The following is a brief statement of some facts and policies adopted by the
Company.

• Each employee works in some departments.

• An employee may possess a number of skills.
• Every manager is an employee.
• A department may participate in none/one/many projects.
• At least one department participates in a project.
• An employee may be engaged in none/one/many projects.
• Project teams consist of at least one member.
• Each project has specific title, deadline, and project value
• Each project can have any of the following statuses:
Ongoing, Terminated, Completed, And Closed.

Note: Assumptions are allowed and you are allowed to include necessary columns/attributes
and tables if it is required.

For the above mentioned business details, you should do the following tasks.

No. Task Marks

Design an Entity – Relationship Diagram (ERD) and map the

entities with appropriate relationships
1 30
• Output
• Brief explanation on the diagram

Use Normalization and make sure your database design is

2 20
normalized properly.