IS 263/ IS264: TUTORIAL ONE

Introduction to Data Modeling

Objective

This tutorial will familiarize you with conceptual data modeling by using one of
the modern techniques -- Entity-Relationship Diagramming (ERD)

You are expected to apply all concepts and symbols introduced in the textbook
and lectures to identify the data needs (requirements) for the mini case
addressed in this assignment. You should consider all entities and relationships
mentioned in this case in your final ERD.

Question One:

A customer (can) orders multiple products. Each product must

be ordered by one customer.
Draw an ERD.

Question Two:

A faculty may teach multiple courses. A course must be taught

by exactly one faculty.

Draw an ERD.

Question Three:

In a university, a Student enrolls in Courses. A student must

be assigned to at least one or more Courses. Each course is
taught by a single Professor. To maintain instruction quality,
a Professor can deliver only one course.

Draw an ERD.

Question Four:

A sales representative must write many invoices. Each invoice

should be written by one sales representative. Each department
must have only one sales representative. Each sales
representative is assigned to many departments. A customer may

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have many invoices. Each invoice must be generated for only
one customer.
Draw an ERD.

Question Five

NMAIST is among the newly established universities in Arusha.

Each class offered by NMAIST may be taught by several
professors. A particular class may always use the same
classroom. Because classes may be held at different times or
on different evenings, it is possible that each classroom is
used by many different classes. By the way, A professor can
teach several classes.
Draw an ERD.

Question Six:

Each employee can be identified by EmpNum (it’s like SS#) with

salary and office phone number. Likewise, each departments
also can identified by DeptNum (it’s like SS#) with deptname
and budget. Each employee works for one department and a
department is managed by an employee. Each child must be
identified uniquely by last name and age when the parent (who
is an employee; assume that only one parent works for the
company) is known. We are not interested in information about
a child once the parent leaves the company.

Question Seven:

Kilimanjaro Imports, Inc. (KII) is an international product

distribution firm located in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. The firm
buys products from international markets and then resells them
to department stores (e.g., a customer) in Tanzania.
Currently, the company has a paper-based system to manage its
product acquisition and sales records. Obviously, the current
system is prone to errors and slow to respond to inquiries
from each regional department store.

KII is hiring you as a system analyst to develop a data model

using an ERD to improve the process.

To shorten your requirement analysis, relevant departments at

KII have provided the following information:

● Supplier: A product supplier’s information includes a

unique supplier ID, supplier name (e.g., a company name),
address, phone, and fax number. While a supplier may have

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 several phones and fax numbers, at present only one phone
and one fax number is recorded on the company
information. The required information about a supplier
includes ID, name, address, and phone.
● Purchasing Agent: The person who handles the purchase
between KII and potential suppliers. The information
about a purchasing agent includes his/her name (not
unique), phone number, and e-mail address. Since the name
is not unique, KII creates a unique personal ID for each
purchasing agent. The required information for a
purchasing agent includes ID and name .
● Product: A product ordered by KII from potential
suppliers. The information about a product includes
product identifier, name, description, and
quantity-onhand. The required information for a product
includes product ID and name.
● Purchase: A purchase order between KII and a particular
supplier. The purchase order information includes its
unique order number, order date, and arrival date.
Certainly, it also includes relevant information about
the supplier, product, and the purchasing agent who
handles the purchase order. Note that some of this data
is to be included via relationships between the related
entities. Once a purchase order is made, the following
information must be provided: order number, order date,
and order quantity.
● Line Item: ​A line item represents a particular product
ordered in a given purchase order. The basic information
about a line item includes an item number, quantity
ordered, and unit cost. A line item must be related to a
purchase order and a particular product. The required
information for a line item includes item number and
quantity ordered.
● Customer: ​A customer is a potential department store to
which KII sells products. The information about a
customer includes customer name (e.g., a company name),
address, and phone. The required information about a
customer includes customer name and phone.
● Sales List: ​This list includes all potential customers
for a particular product. The list is updated regularly.
It contains information about the customer, product, and
the last transaction date on which the customer made a
purchase of that product. If there is no transaction
between the customer and product, then the date is left
empty.

Note that the above description has addressed only the

"entities" involved in the data model. Additional information
about the relationships between entities is summarized below:

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● A purchase order is issued to a particular supplier. A
supplier may be involved in one or several purchase
orders.
● A purchase order may order one or several products. A
product may or may not appear on a particular purchase
order. Certainly, a product could be purchased by several
purchase orders. The relationship between purchase and
product, in fact, is reinforced by entity Line Item.
● A purchase order is handled by only one purchasing agent.
An agent may process one or several purchase orders.
● A product could be sold to one or several customers, and
a customer might be interested in buying one or several
products.

A. Develop an attribute and information table for each

entity. Use the information given above, you should
develop a table (as shown below) for each entity:

Table 1. Attributes and Information of entity Supplier

Note: Although you must define all attributes, you have

full freedom to define the data type, length, and
precision for each attribute. However, whether an
attribute is optional will be determined based on the
information given in the case.

You should develop a table for each entity addressed in

the mini case

B. Use Microsoft PowerPoint (or a drawing in Word) to

develop an ERD.