Database projects are supposed to be the backbone of organizations considering the fact that they contain the data on the basis of which various transactions take place. Therefore it is important to ensure that there is a lot of planning behind the actual creation of a system which accepts data and populates data on demand. Commercial database creation requires application of various theories in order to ensure that the input and output of data is not only according to the requirements however is systematic and organized. This report targets and assessment of the database which was created on the basis of the unit learning, and would further analyze the application of theory is and would also discuss the areas where further improvement could be shown.
Assessment of: Local Estate Agent Management System
The creation of a database requires initial steps and data in order to plan and make a design which would provide adequate data about the functionality which would be related to different data and their interconnections. In order to create a local estate agency management system, there were efforts in place in order to first identify the customers and the property which would be listed by them. In order to understand these connections a diagram was created which suggested the relationship between the data that would be introduced as a part of the system.
There are three different aspects of a database which depend upon the various requirements for which it is being created. The local estate agent management system had all the aspects which were tables, forms and reports. There were four tables in total and provided information about the customers which included gender and user demographics, physical addresses and contact numbers along with the actual budget which they have for their transaction. A similar type of table was populated for the property and this table defined the address and details of properties which were listed by the customers. There was another table which was created for the Internet and use of database and it reflected the different functions of the database along with the interrelated argument. The last table which was created, showed reports of the customers versus the properties and also provide a data related to the availability and follow-up for estate agents. If we analyze the above section, it is clear that it provides different formats of table in order to view the data that has been injected into the system however the tables that are populated do not have any customized options in order to segregate the data which is received from the input forms. Advanced database tables offer graphic user interface based queries which can help to customize the tables into multiple forms if required.
Moving on to the forms which were created as a part of the database design, the first form was related to the customers and obtained all the data which was reflected as a part of the table which provided customer information. A similar form was created for capturing the details of the property and then there was one more form which was related to the switchboard and this form by default provided the facility to add various information types through sub-forms. Although, the forms which were created as a part of the database were easy in their approach and requested systematic information, whether the user demographics or property related information, there was a lack of interaction within the requirement of the form. If we compare this to advanced database systems, the initial form requests user to provide an input about their choice after which a relevant form populates and similarly creates an account for the user which can be used in order to fulfill various tasks where, the initial information about the user remains the same however only task-based information is collected on demand.
Reports are one of the most important aspects of a database and the reason behind creating a database is to allow the users to view required information in a systematic manner immediately. Local estate agent management system provided three different reports which will contact lists, property lists and viewings. The contact list only populated the customer's name and their contact numbers; however the property lists provided a detail about the property, its owner, pricing and the availability. The last report related to viewings, allowed the user to check which properties have been viewed by the customers. The reports provided by the agent management system are very general and may not be sufficient for a proper professional organization. Although, all the information provided by the customers get adequately populated through the reports however the reports do not include options which can help to interconnect the viewings with follow-ups that should be done by the local estate agents. Moreover, the local estate agents should also be able to generate a report which provides them graphical data about the interest shown in various properties that are available so that they can actually assess that which are the properties where they need to concentrate as less number of customers are showing interest in the same.
Application and Influence of Database Theories: Related Examples
As discussed previously, database theories are extremely important in order to add value and structure to a database system, hence it would be necessary to discuss a couple of theories which were useful during the database design of local estate agent management system. Considering the fact that the database was related to commercial activity and required an interconnection between the user, the customer and the commodity (property), it was important to create a good balance between the functional dependency and therefore dependency theory was applied as the data involved had unique and singular identifiers. The application of the theory can be understood by the fact that each customer had a unique address however they could list multiple properties into the system. The identification of the customers was through the reference number created for them and on multiple transactions the data could relate to their reference and populate required information. Similarly, conjugated queries theory was extremely helpful in order to create the relationship between the local and state agent user account and the customer views which were reflected in order to help them to follow up accordingly. This particular area required decidability of containment and it was only possible through the application of conjunctive queries, as it provided the data related to the customer viewings for a local estate agent which was a special case and was not a part of the data which was received through the forms.
If we identify another advanced project related to renting of an apartment, it would be important to note is that there are few areas where this project lacks comparatively. If we consider the website homes.com, there are various areas for which they collect the data and on the basis of the same the users are able to identify the projects and as agents, there are various reports that can be populated including graphical analysis of the views, segregation on the basis of area, views since a particular date and comparison of prices. Although, the input of information required in this database is very similar to the project ‘local estate agent management’, however the published information is much advanced and provides a far better commercial output.
Findings and Discussion
During this project there were various outcomes that helped to learn more about creation of database and management of an IT project from scratch. The basic problem which appeared initially was the application of relational database theory as although it was easy to identify the information that would be required in order to execute the project however it was difficult to identify the relationship which should be created between the entities. One of the very important learnings was that, it is always beneficial to create a relationship entity diagram before proceeding with the creation of database so that there is adequate amount of clarity before the actual design is created.
If there is an opportunity to work on a similar project again the approach to achieve the output will be different from the previous attempts, considering the take always. There are lot of issues faced during the creation of queries in order to populate the reports as the relationship was not effectively defined, hence it would be beneficial to first create a logical diagram in order to define the relationships and then create entities for the database in order to ensure that once the forms and tables are created, the reports can easily be generated on the basis of the relationships that have been created.
Finally, it is important to ensure that while the reports provide all the information which is reflected on the basis of the data that is pulled out from the database inputs of the form, there should also be an adequate application of relationships in order to publish results that provide more consistent results which can be commercially beneficial rather than simply publishing the data which has been received from the form inputs. Hence, an improved project on the same topic must include reports which analyzed the customer viewings of the property data and published the same as a part of the reports in both graphical and table format.
Works Cited
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