As a company grows, so must its information technology strategy grow to accommodate increased stores of data. The discussion here concerns a tour operating company that is rapidly expanding but which must address redundancies in its databasing strategy. The discussion here offers recommendations on how to produce normalization within its databases.
Tour
Databasing Inquiries
Design a data model that will conform to the following criteria:
• Propose an efficient data structure that may hold the tour operator's data using a normalization process. Describe each step of the process that will enable you to have a 2nd Normal Form data structure.
The database in question provides sufficient data for operational consistency but the redundancy of certain data impedes the general efficiency of the system in place. Therefore, normalization is a major priority for the tour operating company. Specifically, the database is overburdened by duplicate customer records, each of which is created at the time that a new tour is booked. This denotes that the system is decidedly inefficient in presenting data on the whole of our customer base.
First, we propose the use of framing as a data structure as a way of refining the representation of data. According to the text by Minsky (1974), individual frames are used to distill bits of data before drawing a connection between theme. According to Minksy, "Attached to each frame are several kinds of information. Some of this information is about how to use the frame. Some is about what one can expect to happen next. Some is about what to do if these expectations are not confirmed. We can think of a frame as a network of nodes and relations. The 'top levels' of a frame are fixed, and represent things that are always true about the supposed situation. The lower levels have many terminals -- "slots" that must be filled by specific instances or data." (Minsky, p. 1)
In our emergent data strategy, the top levels would refer to immutable data such as employee names and ID#s. Contrary to the previously existing strategy of databasing, this approach calls for all tour information, including tour clients and all related data, to be subordinated under tour operator accounts. This is consistent with the method of data structuring proposed by Chapple (2011), which indicates that avoiding duplicate data requires the minimization of duplicate columns from the initial data table and, consequently, the creation of "separate tables for each group of related data and identify each row with a unique column (the primary key)." (Chapple, p. 1)
The text goes on to indicate that "the first rule dictates that we must not duplicate data within the same row of a table. Within the database community, this concept is referred to as the atomicity of a table. Tables that comply with this rule are said to be atomic." (Chapple, p. 1)
This means that the best way to manage the growing wealth of data coming through the tour operating company's system is to make information regarding tour clients and their respective tours into 'lower level' information. By connecting this data to the individual tour operator, the client's information is subordinated under the assigned agent. When a repeat customer reaches out for another tour, the database should offer sufficient information to pair this customer with the previously booking tour operator. The outcome would be a normalization of data within which new tour information is registered under otherwise unchanging top level information regarding both the operator and the client in question.
The Entity Relationship Model shown at the following link provides a useful template for the data representation called for here: http://wofford-ecs.org/dataandvisualization/ermodel/images/fig18.jpg
2. Construct a query that can be used on a report for determining how many days the customer's invoice will require payment if total amount due is within 45 days. Provide the working code.
This query must first be designed based on the selection of the appropriate record source. In this case, the source would be the table compiling customer information. Within this source, a number of selection criteria must be identified. In this case, the selection criteria would include the cost of the selected tour, the date that the tour is booked and the due date that would be arrived at 45 days later. Running this query through the customer database should yield the desired findings.
3. Using the salesperson table described in the summary above, complete the following:
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