Business Informatics
Order Description
Question 1: Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) [10 Marks]
In Weeks 2 and 3, you became familiar with Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) and drew many ERDs
(in Lectures and Workshop/Lab of Week 3). Now, draw an ERD diagram (using software of your
choice such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint etc.) for the case study below and paste a print screen of
your ERD as your answer to this question. Don?t forget to include entities, attributes, relationship
names, cardinality and modality. In addition, you need to underline the primary keys and italicise the
foreign keys.
Case Study: Griffith University Department
? Griffith University has several academic departments including Health, Business,
Science and Art. Each department is uniquely identified by a department ID and
other attributes of a department are department name and contact phone.
? Each department offers a number of courses. Each course is described by a course
ID, course name and credit points. Each course is offered by one and only one
department.
? Moreover, a number of staff members work in each department. A staff member is
described by his/her staff ID, name, and contact phone. Each department is assigned
many staff members. A staff member must be assigned to one and only one
department.
? One of the assigned staff members manages each department, and each department
is managed by only one staff member.
? Each of the courses may generate many classes, however, each class must be
generated by one and only one course. A class can be described by a class ID, name,
day and time.
? An academic staff member may teach in one or more classes, but each class is taken
by only one staff member.
Notes for Question 1:
I. In this course, we have studied only the Crow?s Foot model for ERD. Thus, students? answers
in any other models (e.g., Chen?s model) will be marked a zero!
II. A video on ?How to draw an ERD using MS PowerPoint? is available on EchoCenter. It is also
available under Resources on the Assignment page.
III. Refer to the Assignment FAQ file for more information.
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Question 2: Data Flow Diagram (DFD) [10 Marks]
In Week 5, we introduced Data Flow Diagram (DFD) as an important tool for modelling business
processes. For this question, you are expected to draw a DFD (using software of your choice such as
Microsoft Word, PowerPoint etc.) for the scenario below and paste a print screen of your DFD as
your answer to this question. Don?t forget to include names (nouns) of data flows, data stores and
external entities, for example, ?Payment? for a data flow, ?Transaction? for a data store and
?Customer? for an external entity. The label of a process should be an active verb telling what to do,
for example, ?Receive payment?, ?Deposit cheque?, etc.
Case Study: Griffith University Faculty Staff Promotion
You are responsible for analysing the process of applying for staff promotion in an Australian
university.
The process here is that the staff members willing to get promotion submit their full applications to
their respective school executives within a due date. Upon the receipt of an application, a school
executive selects three reviewers from a list of ?Reviewers?, stores the application with the reviewer
information in a folder called the ?Applications? and send the application to reviewers for comments.
The reviewers have one month to make their comments on a specific application. Once the school
executive receives a reviewer?s comment on the application, he or she stores in the bank of
?Comments? for future retrieval. Once all the reviewers of a specific application submit their
comments, the school executive sends the comments to the applicant to address. The corresponding
staff member then addresses the comments and directly sends the revised application to the school
executive. The school executive then assesses the suitability of the application by reviewing the
revised application. Within a due date, the suitable applications are then forwarded to the
respective faulty deans with recommendations from the school executives. Each faculty dean then
takes the final decision on individual applications from its schools and stores in a folder called the
?Application archive?. The decision on each application is at last announced to the corresponding
applicant.
[Hints: (a) In this case study, all data stores are shown in apostrophes; (b) All the staff members
other than those willing to get promotion are considered as internal entity; and (c) For simplicity this
case study can be divided into three (3) parts:
? Part a: from application submission to reviewer,
? Part b: from reviewer comments to application revision, and
? Part c: from revised application submission to decision announcement.]
Notes for Question 2:
I. In this course, we have studied only FOUR symbols (Process, Data Flow, Data Store and
External Entity) for DFD. Thus, students? answers using any other models will be penalised!
II. A video on ?How to draw a DFD using MS PowerPoint? is available on EchoCenter. It is also
available under Resources on the Assignment page.
III. Refer to the Assignment FAQ file for more information.
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Question 3: MS Excel [10 Marks]
In Week 4, we introduced Microsoft Excel and used to process data using formula and knew how to
generate line and bar graphs. In this question, you will do a similar task using the Excel. Do not forget
to include your answers to all of the question parts 3a to 3e separately into your assignment Word
document.
Case Study: Griffith University Student Grade 2016
Suppose that you work in Griffith University IT (Information Technology) Service Centre. Your boss
has asked you to create a ?computer file? to keep track of student grades in several courses students
enrol in 2016. There are three (3) semesters in 2016.
In order to do the task, you are given a list of five (5) students who enrol in one or more semesters in
2016 as follows (see the student table in Sheet 0 in the attached MS Excel file):
StudentID StudentName StudentPhone
S283345 Adam Gilchrist 07 5656 5656
S787733 Sarah Jefferson 07 2573 7893
S268786 Salim Malik 07 7851 7989
S989374 Sachin Deb 07 7845 2325
S980980 Kylie Turnbull 07 7845 2945
* Note that the above student information has been created randomly. Alternatively, you can create
similar information of five (5) students of your choice.
You are also given a list of six (6) courses which are available in all three semesters in 2016 as follows
(see the course table in Sheet 0 in the attached MS Excel file):
CourseID CourseName CourseCreditPoint
1008ICT Business Informatics 10
2003BUS Accounting 15
3002ENG Electrical & Electronics 10
4005MAT Calculus and Geometry 15
5004ICT Business Analytics 10
6224BUS Management 15
* Note that the above course information has been created randomly. Alternatively, you can create
similar information of six (6) courses of your choice.
As mentioned, there are three semesters in 2016, namely Summer (Ss), Semester 1 (S1) and
Semester 2 (S2). Once enrolled, a student can score a grade of 0 to 5 in each course (see the grade
table in Sheet 0 in the attached MS Excel file):
Grade Letter grade Explanation
0 F Fail
1 A Pass
2 B Pass
3 C Pass
4 D Pass
5 HD Pass
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The minimum and maximum numbers of courses each student can enrol in each semester in 2016
are zero (0) and two (2), respectively. And the minimum and maximum numbers of courses each
student should enrol in 2016 (in all three semesters) are three (3) and six (6) courses, respectively.
Once a student enrols in a course, he or she cannot drop the course, he or she finishes the course
with a grade from 0 to 5. A student cannot re-enrol in a course, where he has scored the Fail (0)
grade, in 2016. However, he or she can re-enrol in 2017 or latter.
Now you will have to create two spreadsheets in the attached MS Excel file as follows: Suppose you
have decided to use a spreadsheet for this purpose as follows (in the attached MS Excel file):
? Sheet 1: Create a spreadsheet table with the following eight (8) columns: StudentID,
StudentName, StudentPhone, CourseID, CourseName, CourseCreditPoint, Semester, Grade.
? Fill your table with at least 20 rows of sample enrolment data. Note that the maximum
number of enrolments (records or rows in this table) would be 30, as there are 5 students
and 6 courses available in 2016. See an example of this table here:
? Sheet 2: Create the following two (2) tables using the data Sheet 1 and use formulas to fill
them in this sheet:
o Table 1: Student Grade 2016 This table has the following columns: StudentID,
StudentName, TotalCreditPoint, AverageStudentGrade.
? This table has five rows, one for each student, and four columns. See an
example of this table here:
? Do NOT include the rows where students have the Fail grade in any
semesters.
? TotalCreditPoint is the total credit of all the courses a student passed in
2016. [Hint: use Sheet 1, Do NOT include the Fail grades.]
? AverageStudentGrade is the average grade of all the courses a student
passed in 2016. [Hint: use Sheet 1, Do NOT include the Fail grades.]
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? If a student does not pass any courses in 2016, the corresponding entries in
Table 1 (under columns TotalCreditPoint or AverageGrade) are blank (NOT
even a ?0?, this means do not write anything)!
o Table 2: Course Grade 2016 This table has the following columns: CourseID,
CourseName, Ss_AverageGrade, S1_AverageGrade, S2_AverageGrade,
AverageCourseGrade.
? This table has six rows, one for each course, and six columns.
AverageSemGrade row is added latter (see instruction below). See an
example of this table below:
? Do NOT include the rows where students have the Fail grade in any
semesters.
? Ss_AverageGrade, S1_AverageGrade and S2_AverageGrade are the average
grades earned by students in Summer, Semester 1 and Semester 2,
respectively, in each course. [Hint: use Sheet 1, Do NOT include the Fail
grades.]
? If a course has not been taken by any students in a semester, the
corresponding entry in Table 2 is blank (NOT even a ?0?, this means do not
write anything for this entry)!
? AverageCourseGrade is the average grade earned by students who passed in
a course in 2016. [Hint: use Sheet 1, Do NOT include the Fail grades.]
? Now, add a row at the bottom of this table as ?AverageSemGrade? and find
the average grades for each semester in 2016, separately. There will be
three average values under the columns Ss_AverageGrade,
S1_AverageGrade and S2_AverageGrade in the table. [Hint: use Sheet 1, Do
NOT include the Fail grades.]
? Appropriately format your spreadsheets (e.g., increase the column heading sizes, use correct
cell data types, add colour to your table headings, cells and add borders, etc., if necessary.
This question has five (5) parts to answer as follows:
3a Place a screen capture of your Sheet 1 into your assignment Word document.
3b Place a screen capture of your Sheet 2 (Tables 1 & 2) into your assignment Word document.
3c Using Table 1 in Sheet 2, create a 2D bar graph to show the total credit point earned by the
individual students in 2016. [Hint: use the column TotalCreditPoint from Table 1.]
? Appropriately title your graph as ?Student Credit Points in 2016? and label the
horizontal axis as ?Total Credit? and the Vertical axis as ?Student ID?.
? Five (5) student IDs should be shown along the vertical axis.
Place a screen capture of your graph into your assignment Word document.
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3d Using Table 2 in Sheet 2, create a 2D line graph to show the average course grades (which is
the last column AverageCourseGrade). [Hint: use the column AverageCourseGrade from
Table 2.]
? Appropriately title your graph as ?Average Course Grade in 2016? and label the
vertical axis as ?Average Grade? and the horizontal axis as ?Course ID?.
? Six (6) course IDs should be shown along the horizontal axis.
Place a screen capture of your graph into your assignment Word document.
3e As you can see the first spreadsheet (Sheet 1) has a specific problem discussed in Week 2
lecture. Please write the problem and briefly tell in 1-2 sentences how this problem can be
experienced in Sheet 1.
Write your answer in your assignment Word document.
Notes for Question 3:
I. DO NOT submit or include your MS Excel file into the assignment submission page.
II. However, the course convenor or the marker of your assignment may ask you to send your
file by email to him/her. So, be ready to send when you are asked.
III. If there is any clue observed in your submission that this task has not been done using an
appropriate spreadsheet software (e.g., MS Excel, Google Sheets), your answer will be
marked a zero!
IV. Refer to the Assignment FAQ file for more information.
Page | 8
Question 4: MS Access [10 Marks]
In Weeks 7 & 8, we introduced Microsoft Access and used to implement small databases. In this
question, you will do a similar task using the Access. Do not forget to include your answers to all of
the question parts 4a to 4e separately into your assignment Word document.
Case Study: Griffith University Student Grade 2016
Consider the same problem as in Question 3, except use a database to keep track of student grades
in 2016. Microsoft Access is your DBMS (Database Management System) to implement the database.
In practice, a student can enrol in many courses and a course can be enrolled by many students. This
means, the relationship between STUDENT and COURSE entities is many-to-many (M:N).
STUDENT COURSE
PK StudentID
StudentName
StudentPhone
enrols PK CourseID
CourseName
CourseCreditPoint
A bridging or associated entity named ENROLMENT is inserted in between STUDENT and COURSE
entities in order to replace the M:N relationship into two (2) one-to-many (1:M) relationships.
Additional attributes such as Semester and Grade can be entered now into this bridging entity.
COURSE STUDENT
ENROLMENT
PK CourseID
CourseName
CourseCreditPoint
PK StudentID
StudentName
StudentPhone
PK EnrolmentID
Semester
Grade
StudentID (FK)
CourseID (FK)
enrols is for
The two foreign keys as shown in ENROLMENT are used to track each enrolment is for which student
in which course.
Now, create a new database using Microsoft Access and create the following three (3) tables:
STUDENT(StudentID, StudentName, StudentPhone)
COURSE (CourseID, CourseName, CourseCreditPoint)
ENROLMENT(EnrolmentNum, StudentID, CourseID, Semester, Grade)
? In the above tables, primary keys are underlined and foreign keys are italicised.
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? About the table ENROLMENT: A unique EnrolmentNum can be automatically created when a
student enrols in a course in a semester. Or, you can make up unique values for
EnrolmentNum for each row in Sheet 1 of Question 3. For example, you may use unique
numbers like 1, 2, 3 ? etc.
? Make appropriate assumptions about the data types for each table column.
? Check Enforce Referential Integrity for all relationships in your ER diagram.
This question has five (5) parts to answer as follows:
4a Create a relational diagram for the scenario above using Microsoft Access and place an
image of your relational diagram in your assignment Word document.
4b Fill all three (3) tables using the same data that you presented in Question 3a. Place an
image of your populated tables in your assignment Word document.
4c Design a query that gives you a table similar to Table 1 on Sheet 2 in Question 3. The query
will show you the average grade of each student in 2016. It will have five (5) rows and three
(3) columns like:
[Hint: The values in Column 3 in this table should be the same as the values of Column 4 in
Table 1 on Sheet 2 in Question 3. Do NOT include the Fail grades.]
Run your designed query and place an image of your generated table in your assignment
Word document.
4d Produce a report for your boss who wants to see the courses enrolled by each of the
students in 2016 and the individual grades that he or she scored in each course. Also, show
the average grade of the student in ALL the courses he or she enrolled in 2016. An example
of a part of the report could be like:
…… [continued]
Place an image of your generated report in your assignment Word document.
4e In Answer to Question 3e, you should have written about a common problem with the
spreadsheet. Do you think the problem with the spreadsheet still exists in the database that
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you have designed using Microsoft Access? Explain in 1-2 sentences why the problem still
exists in the database (if the problem still exists), or how the problem has been eliminated
from the database (if the problem does not still anymore)?
Write your answer in your assignment Word document.
Notes for Question 4:
I. DO NOT submit or include your MS Access file into the assignment submission page.
II. However, the course convenor or the marker of your assignment may ask you to send your
file by email to him/her. So, be ready to send when you are asked.
III. If there is any clue observed in your submission that this task has not been done using an
appropriate database software (e.g., MS Access), your answer will be marked a zero!
IV. Refer to the Assignment FAQ file for more information.
Page | 11
Question 5: The Porter?s Competitive Force Model [10 Marks]
In Week 6, we introduced the Porter?s Competitive Force Model as an important tool for analysing
industry structure (competitive-ability in a given industry). Your workshop instructors also provided
you with examples and solutions in Workshop/Lab for Week 6 and you applied this model in a case
study in exercise for Week 6. For this question, you are expected to analyse the industry structure
for the scenario below using the Porter?s Competitive Force Model (see the following figure). Given
the information and assumptions provided in the scenario, for each of the five forces in the diagram
below determine whether the force is High or Low, with a brief justification of 1-2 dot points for
each force [Similar to your Week 6 Lab Exercise that you?ve submitted in your Learning Journal].
Case Study: Private Health Insurance Cover
Keep in mind the industry in which companies offer online facility for comparing and purchasing
insurance services. Example: Choosi (Choosi.com.au), iSelect (iselect.com.au), CompareTheMarket
(comparethemarket.com.au) or Captain Compare (captaincompare.com.au).
A company is conducting an analysis of industry structure to be able to decide whether to enter into
this industry. This company (like several other existing companies) is planning to make suggestions
on private health insurance covers. Note that it would be relatively hassle-free for a new company to
enter into this industry. Assume that suppliers of this company would be a large number of
computing hardware and software providers. This company is targeting Australian customers. As
buyers can look into several alternative products, and also switch easily, the company has to give
great deals to buyers to make the buyers purchase their insurance through them.
Write your answer in your assignment Word document.
Notes for Question 5: Refer to the Assignment FAQ file for more information.
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Question 6: Social Computing Technologies [10 Marks]
In this subject, you came across a number of technologies which can help bring geographically
dispersed people together. For example, Chapter 8 of the text book introduces social computing.
Imagine that you are employed as a business analyst by a newly founded online university. Read the
following scenario and answer the questions. Make sure you respond all 3 parts (Parts a, b and c) of
this question below.
Case Study: A New Online University
As you know one of the most important problems in online learning (programs) is the lack of in-person
interaction and engagement. Online students are normally less engaged with their courses than
students who attend in-person classes. Therefore, it is crucial for your employer to come up with
innovations/solutions which enhance their students? interaction and engagement. The marketing
department of your university has predicted that this would increase students? achievements and
satisfactions and help the university attract more students, thus make more income and have a better
position in the market.
In no more than 500 words, write a proposal to your manager as to how your university can achieve a
higher student interaction and engagement in its online courses. Remember there are many
technologies that can assist this [for example, social media such as Facebook and Google Plus, Web II
technologies such as learning management system (e.g., Learning at Griffith portal), mobile
applications, Wikis, discussion boards, and many more]. Feel free to use examples from your own
study, or your friends?.
This question has three (3) parts to answer as follows:
6a Suggest a combination of technologies as a medium for online interaction in the university
courses.
6b Justify your choices of technologies in Question 6a above.
6c Include a set of guidelines as to how the proposed technologies should be used so that they
maximise student interaction and engagement, while minimises unexpected .
Write your answer in your assignment Word document. Your answer to all three (3) parts should not
be longer than 500 words.
Notes for Question 6: Refer to the Assignment FAQ file for more information.
[END of Assignment Specifications]
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