3. Information System Organization Methods

Databases and Information Systems can be organised in various ways. We will start comparing some of these ways in this lesson.

In this Lesson we are going to:

  • choose between a computer based or non-computer based method to organise data, given a particular set of circumstances
  • identify situations where one type of database is more appropriate than another 
Basically we are going to look at two methods of Information Organisation (overall we will look at three). The two we will look at are Non Computer Based methods, and Flat File Databases.  
  • H4.1  proposes and justifies ways in which information systems will meet emerging needs
  • H6.1  analyses situations, identifies needs, proposes and then develops solutions


Students Learn About:


organisation

  • non-computer methods of organising including:
    • telephone books
    • card based applications
  • computer based methods of organising, including:
    • flat-file systems
    • database management systems
    • hypermedia
  • the advantages and disadvantages of computer based and non-computer based organisation methods
  • the logical organisation of flat-file databases, including:
    • files
    • records
    • fields, key fields
    • characters
  • the logical organisation of relational databases, including:
    • schemas as consisting of:
      • entities
      • attributes
      • relationships
      • one to one
      • one to many
      • many to many
  • tables as the implementation of entities consisting of:
    • attributes
    • records
  • linking tables using primary and foreign keys
  • user views for different purposes
  • data modelling tools for organising databases, including:
    • data dictionaries to describe the characteristics of data including:
      • field name
      • data type
      • data format
      • field size
      • description
      • example
  • schematic diagrams that show the relationships between entities
  • normalising data to reduce data redundancy

Students Learn To:



  • choose between a computer based or non-computer based method to organise data, given a particular set of circumstances
  • identify situations where one type of database is more appropriate than another
  • represent an existing relational database in a schematic diagram







  • create a schematic diagram for a scenario where the data is to be organised into a relational database
  • modify an existing schema to meet a change in user requirements
  • choose and justify the most appropriate type of database, flat-file or relational, to organise a given set of data
  • create a simple relational database from a schematic diagram and data dictionary
  • populate a relational database with data
  • describe the similarities and differences between flat-file and relational databases
  • create a data dictionary for a given set of data
  • create documentation, including data modelling, to indicate how a relational database has been used to organise data 
  • demonstrate an awareness of issues of privacy, security and accuracy in handling data