Running head: BIRCHWOOD LANE SCHOOLS DBMS

Birchwood Lane Schools DBMS Proposal

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Running head: BIRCHWOOD LANE SCHOOLS DBMS

Birchwood Lane Schools DBMS Proposal

Birchwood Lane Schools is in need of assistance to meet state and federal requirements for

schools. Current state and federal requirements include an application system that records all

student, course, and instructor data electronically. The best way to accomplish this task first

requires a comprehensive database management system (DBMS) model to ensure all necessary

data is included. The current records are recorded on paper and filed away. This currently makes

it harder to maintain organized data, slows down the time it takes to look up information. It also

limits the number of people who can look at data and is very time consume

The objective of this report, is to create a new system of record that meets or exceeds they

state and federal requirements. This can be done, by creating a web application with a database in

the backend to store the data. This will make it easy to organize, add new data, find old data and

expand the application if needed in the future. This should save time and money for the staff and

the school, by increasing the efficiency of the administrators and instructors. The system needs to

be able to store data for students, courses and instructors and their relationships with each other.

Following thorough analysis of the needs of the Birchwood Lane School System, the following

report includes recommendations to fully implement the system

Business Needs

The administration has indicated the current data needs that must be included. For students,

the following need to be included: full name, full address, phone, email, birthdate, enrollment date,

graduation date, courses were taken, and courses currently enrolled in. This information will need

to be kept up to date and will all be attributes for the student entity. For the entity instructors, the

following attributes are necessary: full name, full address, phone, email, birthdate, hire date,

courses taught, and courses currently assigned. And finally, the following attributes are needed for
Running head: BIRCHWOOD LANE SCHOOLS DBMS

the course data entity: course name, course start date, course end date, course category, instructor,

and students. This information must be included in the records in order to pull up transcripts for

students and to aid in the scheduling of courses with the appropriate instructors. It is also necessary

in order to properly maintain communication between schools and students, as well as between

colleges that may be seeking information regarding students.

In order to avoid needing to further alter the system in the future, there are additional

attributes that would be beneficial to include. For students, cumulative grade point average,

courses needed, and clubs/sports would allow further benefits to the school. When pulling up

reports on each student, to see what courses they still need to take would allow a comprehensive

academic learning plan to be stored and followed. Prospective colleges also seek out information

from schools regarding students and the additional attributes would allow that information to be

readily found and reported. It would also be useful for the database to contain unique IDs for

students, courses, and teachers.

As the world continues to move forward with technological advances, it is extremely

necessary for those educating our future leaders and innovators to also keep up with these

advances. The current paper-based system needs to be replaced, yet fully incorporated into the

usage of new systems. The goal of this implementation system is to automate the collection of

data for the school system and store the data in a centralized location with easy access to parents,

teachers, administrators, and other representatives of the school system. The ideal database

management system will replace the current paper-based system with a modern DBMS, increase

the efficiency of data management, have flexibility across different operating systems, and

implementation should include comprehensive training for all end users to ensure the easiest

transition to the new system.

Running head: BIRCHWOOD LANE SCHOOLS DBMS

Solution

Birchwood Lane Schools requires a truly customized system and much thought has gone

into the process of tailoring a system to meet the exact needs as previously described. A thorough

analysis and comparison of DBMS systems currently available have led to the conclusion that

MySQL would be the most effective system to use for Birchwood Lane Schools. My SQL offers

the following advantages:

MySQL is a leader among popular open source databases

Compatibility across different operating systems

Cloud functionality for greater accessibility and reduced capital expenses

Downloadable software and upgrades allow for easy installation

Highly scalable to meet the demands of growing data

Encryption to ensure the security of data

Oracle Premier Support available 24/7 for easy access user support

Compared to other options, MySQL offers great value and flexibility for an ever growing school

system. MySQL also offers great ease of use and indicates from download to setup can be as little

as 15 minutes. This allows for the system to be implemented much faster, on a much broader scale

compared to other options.

Design

The database model, as shown in Figure 1.1, identifies the three entities as Student, Course,

and Instructor. Primaries keys are indicated with a PK next to the attributes StudentID, CourseID,

and InstructorID. CourseAssignment represents the course that the student and teachers are

assigned to with foreign keys indicated with an FK. The 1:M relationships are also indicated
Running head: BIRCHWOOD LANE SCHOOLS DBMS

between the entities. Figure 1.2 is a comprehensive ERD which also shows the entities and their

relationship to one another.

As laid out, if this system was implemented at Birchwood Lane Schools, it would

sufficiently cover the amount of information as determined by state and federal requirements. It

would also allow schools to go even further by including information about GPA, etc. Overall,

implementation would be fairly simple and would allow for the simple collection, storage, and

query of data.

Figure 1.1 Relational Database Model

Running head: BIRCHWOOD LANE SCHOOLS DBMS

Figure 1.2 Entity Relationship Diagram

Implementation

In order to implement this system, Birchwood Lane schools will need to ensure there is

personnel with sufficient knowledge of the system. Only essential personnel require training to use

the system. Essential personnel is defined as any personnel that would assume the role of a user.

Such personnel may include principals, vice principals, support staff, and other administrators

within the school system. To ensure personnel is properly trained, My SQL offers training and

online support (MySQL, 2016). As the cost of training can be costly, it is advised schools seek out

skilled professionals able to assume the roles of Database Administrators for the district as well.
Running head: BIRCHWOOD LANE SCHOOLS DBMS

MySQL offers flexibility in the hardware needed for full implementation (Microsoft SQL

Server, 2016). As it works with many different operating systems, it is likely that Birchwood Lane

Schools can avoid the necessity of purchasing extra hardware and equipment to accommodate the

DBMS. Please refer to the following chart for specifications on file sizes with each corresponding

operating system

Table 1: Database Size Limits

https://bb.snhu.edu/webapps/Bb-wiki-BBLEARN/wikiView?course_id=_79550_1&wiki_id=_40086_1

MySQL:
Operating System File-size Limit
Win32 w/ FAT/FAT32 2GB/4GB
Win32 w/ NTFS 2TB (possibly larger)
Linux 2.2-Intel 32-bit 2GB (LFS: 4GB)
Linux 2.4+ (using ext3 file system) 4TB
Solaris 9/10 16TB
OS X w/ HFS+ 2TB

Recommended CPU: 2Ghz Dual Core or Higher

Recommended RAM: 6GB+

Dependent on the Operating System, some hardware may require upgrading, as well as the

Operating System. Table 2 outlines all system and hardware requirements for the implementation

to be successful. All computers should be checked according to the following system requirements

to see if it is a candidate for use with MySQL. As the school already has an abundance of Windows

compatible computers and Apple computers, the following System/Hardware requirements have

been narrowed down to fit these computers.

Running head: BIRCHWOOD LANE SCHOOLS DBMS

Table 2: Operating System/Hardware Requirements

https://bb.snhu.edu/webapps/Bb-wiki-BBLEARN/wikiView?course_id=_79550_1&wiki_id=_40086_1

Operating System Architecture

Oracle Linux
Oracle Linux 7 x86_64
Oracle Linux 6 x86, x86_64
Oracle Linux 5 x86, x86_64
Oracle Linux 4 (EOL Notice ) x86, x86_64, Intel IA64
Microsoft
Microsoft Windows 10 x86, x86_64
Microsoft Windows 8 x86, x86_64
Microsoft Windows 2012 Server x86_64
Microsoft Windows 7 x86, x86_64
Microsoft Windows 2008 Server R2 x86_64
Microsoft Windows Vista (EOL Notice ) x86, x86_64
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server (EOL Notice ) x86, x86_64
Microsoft Windows XP (EOL Notice ) x86, x86_64
IBM
IBM AIX 5.3 (EOL Notice ) IBM Power5_64
Apple
Apple OS X v10.11 x86_64
Apple OS X v10.10 x86_64
Apple OS X v10.9 x86_64
Apple OS X v10.8 (EOL Notice ) x86_64
Apple Mac OS X v10.7 (EOL Notice ) x86_64
Apple Mac OS X v10.6 (EOL Notice ) x86, x86_64
Apple Mac OS X v10.5 (EOL Notice ) x86, x86_64

Cost also remains an important factor to consider. Depending on the number of

computers the school district wishes to give access to, the cost is minimal $5,000/per computer

yearly. This yearly cost includes Oracle Premier Support for years 1-5 as well as a host of

MySQL features such as: Oracle Enterprise Manager, Monitor, Backup, Security, etc. Extended

support can be purchased at an additional cost.

Running head: BIRCHWOOD LANE SCHOOLS DBMS

The ideal timeline for full implementation is one year. This will allow historical data,

specifically for the last 30 years, to be included in the system as well. Implementation will be

broken up into three phases:

Phase I: During the summer months of June July, system upgrades, program download

and installation, database creation and the end-user operating system is configured.

Phase II: August will include training for all system administrators and essential

personnel. MySQL seminars offered for any others interested in learning more.

Entry of current year of students begins.

Phase III: This will run through the end of the school year and includes data migration

from all paper records. A minimum of one dedicated staff member for each school should

be assigned to entering the previous years, but a team of 3-5 is recommended.

At the completion of Phase III the system should be fully functional and ready for all current

enrollment for future school years.

Summary

This proposal is submitted by Birchwood Lane Schools in mind for the optimization of

their school records system. After implementation, the paper-based system of previous years will

be eliminated and Birchwood Lane Schools will reap the benefits of more efficient record

keeping, as well as an easy to use a system of retrieval of information.

Running head: BIRCHWOOD LANE SCHOOLS DBMS

References

MySQL. (2016). Retrieve from http://www.mysql.com/products/

Microsoft SQL Server. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-

server-editions