Please specify if there is any insufficient knowledge. Chapter 1: DBMS (5 points
ID: 3904418 • Letter: P
Question
Please specify if there is any insufficient knowledge.
Chapter 1: DBMS (5 points) A long-time volunteer public skating coordinator for an ice arena in Madison wants to store information about many public skating events at this ice arena over the year so that he could provide some concrete reports to the director board every quarter. Not surprisingly, the volume of data compels him to think about using a database system. However, he wants to pick the features of a database management system (DBMS) to fit his needs only, i.e., he wants to buy/use a DBMS ! with the fewest possible features. He plans to run it as a stand-alone application on his laptop. Of course, he does not plan to share his data with anyone. Indicate which of the following DBMS features he should choose/pay for, in each case also indicate why he should (or should not) pay for that feature in the DBMS system he plans to buy. 1. Concurrency control. 2. Crash recovery 3. A reporting tool (tools used for data visualization or geneting reports from stored data). 4. A query language.Explanation / Answer
It is given in the question that he does not plan on sharing his data with anyone. This implies that he is the only one who is going to be accessing this data. Hence concurrency control is a feature that isn't required and he does not need to pay for it.
Crash recovery is a feature that is necessary to the system he plans to buy and he should pay for it. Several unexcpected consequences can lead to crash that may result in the loss of data. A system crash or disk failure are two examples of system failures that may result in the loss of data. It is better to take measures for such scenarios.
A reporting tool is necessary. The question clearly states that his intent on collecting the data is to present it to the director board. Such a presentation or report requires a thorough analysis of the data and inferences drawn from it. Graphs and charts help visualize the nature of the data and help in conveying key points. Hence a reporting tool would be necessary to generate such analyses and reports. Hence he should opt for a DBMS with a reporting tool.
A query language is necessary. When storing large amounts of data you require a tool to retrieve data from the database. A query language is the most efficient necessity that allows one to retrieve and add new data to the databse and enables him to make changes to the database as well. Hence he should opt for a DBMS with a query language.