ITEC 304

I. Course Title: Database from the Manager’s Perspective

II. Course Number: ITEC 304

III. Credit Hours: 3 credits

IV. Prerequisites: None

V. Course Description:

An examination of enterprise database management systems and reporting tools from the user/manager perspective. Emphasis is on data gathering, data organization, data retrieval, data integrity, and security. Database systems for transaction processing and data warehousing are compared and contrasted. Reporting, data mining, and decision support systems are introduced.

Note(s): Applied Learning designated course. Students that have earned credit for ITEC 340 cannot subsequently earn credit for ITEC 304. Students may not take ITEC 304 and ITEC 340 concurrently. ITEC 304 may not be used to satisfy a BS requirement or technical elective for students majoring in any of the programs in the School of Computing and Information Sciences.

VI. Detailed Description of Content of the Course:

Topics include:

1. Introduction

a. The need for and value of persistent data

b. Database Management Systems Defined

c. Transactional databases vs. data warehouses

d. Data warehousing vs. data mining

e. Ethical and Security Considerations

2. Using a Database

a. Elements of a relational database

b. Query Languages

i. Query By Example (QBE)

ii. Structured Query Language (SQL)

iii. Query by Dialogue

c. Adding, changing, and deleting data

3. Fundamentals of Database Design

a. Separating data from process

b. Entity Relationship Diagrams

c. Dealing with data redundancy

d. Enforcing integrity and business rules

e. The importance of design, getting design assistance

4. Reporting Tools

a. The need for reporting tools, popular products

b. Tabular report production

c. Customizing a tabular report

d. Form based reports

e. Web Portals

5. Basic Forms

a. Forms generation vs. full application development

b. Basic form creation and use

6. DSS, Data Warehousing and Data Mining

a. Business Intelligence: the business value of data

b. Decision Support Systems

c. The data warehouse defined, difference with transactional database

d. ETL process and its importance

e. Data Mining defined

f. Common Tools

g. Basic mining examples

7. Enterprise vs. Personal Databases

a. Understanding the difference between enterprise level and personal databases

VI. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course:

Course delivery methods will include classroom lectures, discussion, group work, and examples.

VII. Goals and Objectives of the Course:

Students who complete the course will be able to:

Discuss the role of database management systems in the enterprise.
Identify the basic constructs of a relational database.
Formulate and execute queries that answer specific questions using QBE, SQL, and QBD interfaces.
Demonstrate the ability to design simple database schemas that avoid data redundancy and employ correct data types.
Discuss the implications of poor database design.
Identify the ways in which data integrity and business rules are enforced in a database.
Generate basic tabular and form based reports based on data in a relational database.
Distinguish between transactional databases and data warehouses and between data warehousing, data mining, and decision support systems.
Give examples of situations where DSS and data mining tools should be used.
Describe how they would approach a data mining opportunity, set up the related tasks, and identify tradeoffs between different data mining techniques.
Discuss the differences and implications of those differences between enterprise level and personal databases.
Students will be able to reflect on how the skills they learn in this class will apply to professional roles.

VIII. Assessment Measures:

Assessments, which may include in-class exams, presentations, homework assignments, projects, labs, and quizzes will be used to measure each student’s performance.

Other Course Information: None

Review and Approval

Oct 22, 2008 Initial Approval Art Carter, Dept Chair

Revised: June 1, 2012

March 01, 2021