Database Design and Development

Information is a key driver for decision making in any organisation as it provides the materials that increases the knowledge of the person or system who use it. To obtain information we must have data that can be reprocess into information.

Data is the stored representations of objects and events that are meaningful and important in our environment and can be categorised into two types:

• Structured Data: numbers, text, dates
• Unstructured Data : images, videos, audios, documents

There are many different methods and approaches to managing data in business and other organisations and all provide for an organised collection of logically related data stored in a standardised format called a database. Databases are designed to be centralised, shared by multiple users and managed by a controlling agent. Database Management Systems (DBMS) are a software system used to systematically create, maintain, and provide controlled access to a user database.

The database approach stores only base and raw data and computes on the raw data stored providing the means for organisations to not store computable data but to present it in readable forms.

The advantages of following a database approach include:

• Improved data sharing
• Enforcement of standards
• Improved data quality
• Improved data accessibility and responsiveness
• Improved decision support

Different types of approaches for managing data exist such as

• Relational databases (SQL, mySQL)
• Object-oriented databases
• Multidimensional databases / Data Warehouses
• Not Only SQL (NoSQL) databases/ Big Data Management (MongoDB)

One of the most popular types of databases in use throughout the world is the relational databases (e.g. Microsoft SQL). Relational databases represents data as a collection of tables in which all data relationship are represented by common values in related tables (similar to conventional two-dimensional tables that include a Row (tuple or record), a Column (field or attribute) and a Cell (field value, attribute value or data element). Each table contains data belonging to a common element, e.g. Employee table, Department table, etc.

Designing a database properly is important and fundamental to establishing a database that meets the needs of the users. At SYSOP, developing databases begins with data modelling, which is a design process to scope, identify and specify the general contents of the databases. These Data models provide a graphical diagram capturing the nature and relationship of data and include Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERD) and Relational Model/Schema.

Also important in an database design is the incorporation of business rules or constraints intended to assert business structure or to control or influence the behaviour of the business.

SYSOP has a broad and deep range of skills and experience in building and managing different types of database systems, matching organisational requirements with the appropriate solution for delivering predefined outcomes.