Group Projects

Cooperative group projects provide hands-on access to a commercial database product. The development of our particular approach has been supported by an award from the National Science Foundation (Grant No. DUE-9451489).The course project is divided into three main phases,involving requirements analysis and conceptual design, relational database mapping and prototyping, and database system implementation using Microsoft Access.

Group Project Overview

Project Guidelines



Curriculum Materials

The curriculum materials developed are based on the COMPANY enterprise used in the textbook:

Fundamentals of Database Systems
R. Elmasri and S. Navathe
Benjamin/Cummings Publishing, 3rd edition, 2000.

The COMPANY implementation is also used as an example group project. For each phase of the project, there are sample documents for the intermediate and final phase deliverables. There are also assessment questions to be answered by the group in each phase to relate the database theory learned in class to the practical aspects of the project.

          MS ACCESS 2000

Tutorial		Introduces relevant features of Microsoft Access on the COMPANY Database example.
Company DB       Example	(zipped)	An Access 2000 implementation of the COMPANY database example from the textbook.

Phase 1: Requirements Analysis and Conceptual Design

Intermediate Deliverable		Includes a requirements description and an initial Entity-Relationship (ER) diagram.
Final Deliverable		Includes a requirements description and an ER diagram with structural constraints specified; a list of constraints that are not captured on the ER diagram and a summary of processing needs, categorized with respect to expected forms, reports and queries.
Phase Summary		Provides an example of the Phase Summary presentation to be given in class at the end of Phase 1.
Assessment		Questions designed for this phase to relate the theoretical components of the course material and the practical aspects of the course.
Sponsor Extension		An out-of-class training exercise to implement an extension to the COMPANY database example. The exercise provides step-by-step instructions on how to implement the required extensions. Every student is required to implement the extension, and it is the phase checker's responsibility to verify the succcessful completion of the extension by each group member.
Phase1 Intermediate Form		Cover sheet for Phase 1 Intermediate deliverable.
Phase1 Final Form		Cover sheet for Phase 1 Final deliverable.
Assessment Summary Form		Form for summarizing the assessment.
Confidential Phase Evaluation Form		Form for the confidential evaluation of team members.
Group Status Form		Form for describing the status of group meetings and member responsibilities.

Phase 2: Relational Database Design and Prototyping

Intermediate Deliverable		Includes a refined ER diagram; a relational schema for the enterprise that indicates the attributes and keys of each relation; a list of functional dependencies holding on the enterprise; a discussion of their relational design with respect to normal form, lossless join and dependency preservation properties; and a revised summary of processing needs, categorized with respect to forms, reports and queries.
Final Deliverable		Includes updates of the intermediate technical deliverables and a prototype of the database implemented in Microsoft Access. This prototype includes the definition of the schema, including referential integrity as defined via the relationships window in Access, and a prototype of the forms and reports listed.
Assessment		Questions designed for this phase to relate the theoretical components of the course material and the practical aspects of the course.
Enhancements		An out-of-class training exercise to implement four enhancements to the company database implementation. Although requirements and guidelines are given, the student must discover how to implement the extensions based on hints given by italicized words in the document. Each member of the group is required to implement one enhancement, and the phase checker is responsible for integrating the enhancements into a single implementation, which is handed in for grading as part of the final phase deliverable.
Phase2 Intermediate Form		Cover sheet for Phase 2 Intermediate deliverable.
Phase2 Final Form		Cover sheet for Phase 2 Final deliverable.
Assessment Summary Form		Form for summarizing the assessment.
Confidential Phase Evaluation Form		Form for the confidential evaluation of team members.
Group Status Form		Form for describing the status of group meetings and member responsibilities.

Phase 3: Implementation

Intermediate Deliverable		No technical deliverables - Group Status Report only
Final Deliverable		Includes a revision of the Phase 2 technical deliverables excluding the discussion of the relational design theory, and a complete implementation of the database application.
Assessment		Questions designed for this phase to relate the theoretical components of the course material and the practical aspects of the course.
Phase3 Intermediate Form		Cover sheet for Phase 3 Intermediate deliverable.
Phase3 Final Form		Cover sheet for Phase 3 Final deliverable.
Assessment Summary Form		Form for summarizing the assessment.
Confidential Phase Evaluation Form		Form for the confidential evaluation of team members.
Group Status Form		Form for describing the status of group meetings and member responsibilities.

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