Location: Harrogate

Time: Weekends: 9, 10, 23, 24 June, 14, 15, 28, 29 July 9.00 to 16.00

Lecturer: Dr.Richard J.Housden.

Brief description of course: (3 semester hours)

Effective management of a business organization in a highly competitive environment requires ready access to relevant information. As the amount of computer held raw data, from which information is derived, continues to double each year, the complexity of the processes of organizing, storing, processing, and accessing data increases. Databases and database management systems are designed to facilitate these processes but database technology does not, in and of itself, give an organization competitive advantage. Advantage from databases arises from the effective use of well-designed databases. The MIS Director needs to understand the application, logical structure, and physical implementation of well designed database systems to facilitate effective and efficient use.

The fundamental purpose of this course is to increase the student's understanding of how data resources can be managed to support information systems in organizations. The course objective is to assist the student in developing an appreciation of data as a valuable corporate resource requiring management to further the business objectives of the organization. The course includes study of underlying database concepts, database architecture, database design and implementation, and database administration. The concepts of concurrency control, and distributed database management systems are examined, and object oriented databases, and the data warehouse as a basis for decision support are introduced.

Course work assignments will include practical use of Structured Query Language (SQL), and a group project.

Database Systems, Design, Implementation, and Management (4th edition, 2000) by Peter Rob and Carlos Coronel. Published by Course Technology, International Thomson Publishing.

Prerequisite: INSS 510, INSS 520, INSS 530, or permission of the professor.

Students are expected to attend all scheduled classes and to contribute constructively to class and group activities. The text for the course provides excellent coverage of the topics; the lectures will include reference to case studies, and examinations will be based on the lecture material and on directed readings.

All students will be expected to contribute to group work.

Assignments and examinations will be assessed and grades awarded in accordance with the following standard scales :

For group work, the same grade will be awarded to each member of a group.

Credit will be given for both content and clarity of presentation.

Students are advised that the grade for work submitted after the due date without an accepted excuse may be reduced.

The final grade for the course will be determined from the weighted sum of the percentage grades assigned for each of the examinations and other evaluated activities.

Instructor: Dr. Richard J. Housden

Dr. Housden is an Emeritus Professor of the Open University (UK). He received his MA(Hons) in Mathematics and qualified teacher status in Mathematics from Cambridge University, and the Academic Postgraduate Diploma in Numerical Analysis and Doctor of Philosophy (Computer Science) from the University of London. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, a Chartered Information Systems Engineer and a Chartered Mathematician. He has some forty five years experience of teaching, curriculum development and course accreditation. Until his retirement in 1997, he was Professor of Computing at the Open University where, as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Resources), until July,1995, he had overall responsibility for all University resources: financial, human and physical including responsibility for IS Strategy and IT Strategy. He is currently an Academic Advisor to the University of Buckingham. He has been a term appointed lecturer for the University of Maryland and Boston University for more than sixty terms since 1985.

Office hours: Professor Housden will be available for consultation as required before and after each class meeting. He may also be contacted by telephone at home most evenings on Milton Keynes (01908) 583488 or by electronic mail. His address is:

Students will work in small groups (3-4 persons) for this project which will involve study of some more advanced aspects of databases, e.g., a practical example of a distributed database system, or an object oriented database, or a detailed study of a real or proposed database or data warehouse application in a business environment. Each group will pursue a different choice. Material from texts may be used as a starting point. Other sources outside class can be found through library and/or on-line research. Further general instructions are as follows:

INSS 550 Database Management & Decision Systems Tentative course schedule.

Return to: Graduate Programs Syllabi