Mgmt 3830

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Mgmt 3830 Contemporary Database Applications

• Faculty of Management

Professor Brian Dobing
EMail brian.dobing_at_uleth.ca Web Site
http//home.uleth.ca/brian.dobing/3830.htm
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Class Web Page

• http//home.uleth.ca/brian.dobing/3830.htm
• All Milestones and handouts
• Any Milestone updates or corrections
• Class slides
• MS Access links, etc.

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Course Goals

• Understand and experience the system building
  process
• Recognize the management issues in system
  building
• Be able to build a small system in Microsoft
  Access 2000
• Appreciate the risks of relying on systems

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Who Should Take Mgmt 3830?

• Required of all MIS majors
• Mgmt 3831 is now available for non-MIS majors
• Some knowledge of Access is essential
• Knowledge of programming (VB) is also helpful

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Learn at a Higher Level

• Conceptual understanding is more important than
  rote learning
• Cant learn everything about Access in one term
• Every system requires different features
• Need to learn how to learn

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Think For Yourself

• You are responsible for designing your system
• Design your own Forms
• Design your own Reports
• Decide what the system needs
• But design with the client in mind

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Set Realistic Course Goals

• Students enter 3830 with
• Different backgrounds
• Different knowledge of Access
• Different career goals
• Decide what you want and what you need to do to
  get it

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Maintain the Pace

• Course milestones are not easily done the night
  before
• Building systems with tight deadlines can be very
  frustrating
• Usually they dont work well
• Get started early
• Think about the design

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Why Study Database Management?

• Most business data are stored in databases
• Most business systems are built around a DataBase
  Management System (DBMS)
• To manage information, you must understand
  databases

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Why Do Organizations Build Systems?

• Facilitate daily operations
• Improve decision making
• Control
• Regulatory requirements

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Building Good SystemsIs Not Easy

• Only 25 of projects are finished
• on time
• within budget
• to the clients satisfaction
• 50 of projects are over budget by 60 or more
  and contain less than 70 of promised features

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Why Microsoft Access?

• Access is the database package included in
  Microsoft Office
• Easiest to learn and use
• Powerful features
• BUT
• Access is not designed for large,
  mission-critical systems

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Learning Access

• This class assumes you have seen some
  introduction to Access
• Some of what you need will be discussed in class
• But some features will be left to you to learn
  from the book

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Final Grade

• Final Exam 40
• Class Project 60
• Project has seven milestones

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Textbooks

• Modern Database Management
• McFadden et al. (On reserve)
• Database Management Systems
• Post (On reserve)
• Using Access 2000 Special Edition
• or something similar

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Class Project

• Build a system to manage a small,
  information-based business
• Support day-to-day operations
• Generate management reports

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System Tasks

• Build a sample data model
• Create the system data model
• Build the database
• Create some queries
• Build the user interface
• Provide some management reports
• Finish with an integrated system

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Project Structure

• Milestones are due by 945 AM
• For early milestones, you will get a correct
  answer
• might be scaled down
• For later milestones, you will need to fix any
  problems

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Project Teams

• All milestones may be submitted in teams of two
  (but no more)
• Grades will not be adjusted for those who work
  alone
• Choose your partner carefully
• You can change partners anytime for the first
  five milestones

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Finally ...

• Read the syllabus carefully
• This is our contract
• Keep up with the readings
• Start learning Access now, if you dont know it
  already

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And have fun!!!