Business Systems Analysis MGMT340
Chapter 7 Problems and Exercises Solutions
Solution to Question 5
a. The figure shows a ‘many to many’ relationship. Therefore, any EMPLOYEE can work on a PROJECT and there can be several PROJECTS with several EMPLOYEES working on them.
b. The degree shown in the used_on relationship is “one to many” with a minimum cardinality of zero. (The zero through the line near the ‘task’ entity means a minimum cardinality of zero, whereas the crow’s-foot notation means a “many” maximum cardinality, (George, Hoffer & Valacich, 2012). This means that one ‘tool’ can be used on many projects and many projects can make use of one tool.
c. TASK is in a binary many to many relationship (associative relationship) between TOOL and CITY.
d. Skill could also be modeled as an attribute of the EMPLOYEE entity.
e. For EMPLOYEE entity, some added attributes could be Address, Date of Birth and Skill. For PROJECT entity, some added attributes could be Scope and Purpose.
f. TOOL could be modeled as an associative entity along with EMPLOYEES and PROJECTS. An associative entity type is one that associates the instances of one or more entity types and contains attributes that are peculiar to the relationship between those entity instances. For example, EMPLOYEES can use TOOL and PROJECT will also need TOOL. TOOL can used by EMPLOYEES for PROJECTS.
Solution to Question 16
Table 1.0
Alternative
Description
A
Buy off the shelf Point of Sale (POS) systems software
B
Buy off the shelf partially customized POS system software
C
Build a fully customized POS system software in house
Table 1.1
Alternative A
Alternative B
Alternative C
Requirement
(Scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is easy/flexible/fast and 1 is difficult/inflexible/Slow)
Easy to Use
5
5
5
Flexible
3
5
4
Fast
4
5
4
Table 1.2
Alternative A
Alternative B
Alternative C
Constraints
Short and Easy Training
2 week
1 week
2 weeks
Ease of Installation
(on a
References: George, F. J., Hoffer, A. J. & Valacich, S. J. (2012). Essentials of Systems Analysis and Design. 5th Ed. Upper Saddle River: NJ: Pearson Education Inc.