
SECTION 6.1
Data, INFORMATION, and databases
This section provides a discussion on the issues found in low quality
information and how to obtain high quality information. The section primarily
focuses on the relational database model. It introduces students to entities,
attributes, primary keys, foreign keys, and data driven websites.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Learning Outcome 6.1: Explain the four primary traits that
determine the value of information.
Information is data converted into a meaningful and useful context.
Information can tell an organization how its current operations are
performing and help it estimate and strategize about how future operations
might perform. It is important to understand the di.erent levels, formats,
and granularities of information along with the four primary traits that help
determine the value of information, which include (1) information type:
transactional and analytical; (2) information timeliness; (3) information
quality; (4) information governance.
Learning Outcome 6.2: Describe a database, a database
management system, and the relational database model.
A database maintains information about various types of objects (inventory),
events (transactions), people (employees), and places (warehouses). A
database management system (DBMS) creates, reads, updates, and deletes
data in a database while controlling access and security. A DBMS provides
methodologies for creating, updating, storing, and retrieving data in a
database. In addition, a DBMS provides facilities for controlling data access
and security, allowing data sharing, and enforcing data integrity. The
relational database model allows users to create, read, update, and delete
data in a relational database.
Learning Outcome 6.3: Identify the business advantages of a
relational database.
Many business managers are familiar with Excel and other spreadsheet
programs they can use to store business data. Although spreadsheets are
excellent for supporting some data analysis, they o.er limited functionality in
terms of security, accessibility, and 8exibility and can rarely scale to support